Documentary!
by ShinyCDiver
Summary: An AU where everything in the anime series was filmed as part of a documentary. The characters were cast only because they were students, but their TV personalities and true personalities were completely different. Will they make it through the entire filming of the documentary?
1. Prologue

**Now for the Love Live School Idol Project Documentary version! First chapter is introducing the characters! First part is told through a camera.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Love Live.**

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"This is not just your ordinary documentary! No, it isn't! It's the heart-warming tale of how nine students banded together to save their school from closure! Love Live: School Idol Project!

"First off is second year student, Kousaka Honoka! She's sixteen years old, very energetic, and always hits the roof with her enthusiasm!" Honoka beamed and made two victory signs.

"Fight-o dayo!" The girl shouted cheerfully.

"Oh yes! Very energetic! Next is second year student, Sonoda Umi! This calm and cool beauty is actually extremely shy! Don't worry, Umi-chan! We're rooting for you!" Umi smiled nervously and gave a small wave.

"P-Please take care of me…" The girl said, blushing.

"We will! Now for the third second year student, Minami Kotori! Cute, fluffy, innocent, this girl has it all!" Kotori smiled and waved.

"Everyone, I'll do my best!" The girl said, bouncing up with a fist pump.

"Go for it! Next up is first year student, Hoshizora Rin! She's fifteen years old, likes cats, ramen, and playing sports!" Rin held up her hands in a cat-like pose.

"Nya nya nya~" She chorused.

"Nya right back at you! Another first year student, Koizumi Hanayo! Also known as Kayo-chin, she is a quiet and cute member!" Hanayo blushed and looked away, her eyes flickering to the camera.

"Unno…etto…w-what should I say?" She gave up and started studying the ground underneath her.

"Don't be nervous! Now for the last first year student, Nishikino Maki! Another cool beauty, could she actually have a soft side?!" Maki twirled a lock of her own hair, her countenance radiating boredom.

"Are we done yet?" She asked in a flat tone.

"Your part, yes! But this segment isn't over! Our first third year student, Yazawa Niko! Seventeen years old and already a super idol!" Niko grinned and crossed her arms.

"You'd better watch me!" She proclaimed, pointing at the camera.

"Oh we will! The next third year student, Ayase Eri! Not only is she a part of this group, but she is the Student Council President too!" Eri winked at the camera.

"Harasho!" She said, giving a thumbs up.

"That means 'good'! And the final member, Toujou Nozomi! She's into spirituality and fortune-telling, though you probably couldn't tell!" Nozomi whipped out a hand of cards and held it up to her face.

"Shall I read your future?" She asked.

"Please do! And that concludes our introductions!"

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"Man…I'm beat…" Honoka complained, flopping down under the shade of the tree in the courtyard. Eri sat down next to her.

"I wonder how this is even a documentary? We're basically acting." The blonde huffed unhappily.

"Right? I'm like, the queen of no energy." She propped herself up on her elbows to see how the rest of the cast was doing.

Umi was being dragged around by Kotori again, now that the filming was over for the day. Honoka wondered how Kotori still maintained so much energy after the filming. She thought it was because of her condition, though she also didn't understand how Umi managed to keep up with her friend. Rin was being followed by cats again, while Hanayo followed secretively and snapped photos. Honoka didn't know how the two of them were even friends in the first place. Maki was lecturing the production crew on how exactly they should be doing their job, while Niko was bargaining with another crew member for her pay. She didn't see Nozomi, but judging from their first meeting a few hours ago, she would be along shortly.

It turned out that Nozomi was already clinging to Eri before Honoka even started looking around.

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If the documentary cameras were actually capturing the true characters of the girls involved, it wouldn't achieve the result that the production crew wanted. But it would be hell of a lot easier for the cast.

Kousaka Honoka had almost zero energy most of the time. She was also renowned for her lack of caring for things beyond her current situation. For her to summon the energy she needed to portray her character was almost a miracle, or so it was considered by the rest of the cast. She hadn't known any of them before the filming started. Sometimes she wondered who was the idiot director who decided to put her in the lead character role.

Sonoda Umi was almost devoid of emotions and almost never talked. She had a hard time making friends when she was younger because of it. A lot of make-up and practice was put into place just for the one line Umi had to say so far. She had coaches to make her more shy, more innocent, and so far it's been fairly successful. But it still was just an act and she remained the same around the rest of the cast. Her only friend was Kotori.

Minami Kotori was like the exact opposite of Umi. She was always overflowing with energy and words, to the point where she almost never stopped talking. Or moving. She was ADHD, but refused to take her medicine for it. She claimed that the medicine would make her dull, and no one could keep up with her long enough to make her take the medicine. Umi was the only one capable of listening to Kotori's rambles without getting confused.

Hoshizora Rin disliked cats. She was allergic to their fur but they seemed to like her. She was constantly tailed by one or more cat, much to her displeasure. Her favorite thing to do was to look up at the sky, whether by telescope, or by eye sight alone, and watch the stars. She was also no good at sports. The only skill she had that was related to sports was her speed. She was fast both on land and in the water, though sports were not that interesting.

Koizumi Hanayo was a prankster. Her usual victim? Her childhood friend, Rin. Hanayo's favorite prank to pull on Rin was to hide catnip in her clothing, without her friend knowing. She liked seeing the cats following Rin around, like little ducks following their mother. She also pranked Maki a lot, though she was much more lenient with her pranks with the other first year.

Nishikino Maki was more of a crybaby than the calm character they had made her out to be. She got scared easily, broke down easily, and was an extremely hard person to work with. She was also used to giving orders and being obeyed, as a spoiled rich daughter. As far as the rest of the cast could figure, the production company had gotten funding from the Nishikino family, and as such, had to include the daughter of the family in the filming.

Yazawa Niko was reined in by the promise of pay for her efforts. She lived alone with her mother and three younger siblings, and needed the money to get them better things. She had no interest in being an idol, to be honest. She'd rather find a part-time job than waste time in a club. But if she was going to earn money by simply going to class and then to a club, then she would do it, rather than find a part-time job that would take high school students with no experience.

Ayase Eri hated being popular. But she couldn't help it with her looks and grades. It had even gotten to the point where she was not doing her hair properly, nor was she studying as hard as she used to. And yet, she still drew the admiration of her peers. So she became the Council President only so she would be busier and leave later than the other students, therefore avoiding them. The only one she was never able to evade was Nozomi, her Vice President.

Toujou Nozomi simply wanted more friends and jumped at the chance to meet more people. Though she was a grounded teenager with no belief in the mystical, she was able to play her role convincingly. Her grades weren't that good though, and she stuck to Eri only to get help on her classes and homework, though she felt like Eri was a friend too. To be honest, she couldn't actually keep up with her work as part of the Student Council, but she liked being with Eri.

In short, they were a mish-mash of very different people. If they managed to make it through the entire filming process, they would be changed by their experience. That is, if they managed to make it first.

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**Please review and tell me what you think!**


	2. Come True! Our Dreams!

**Review Responses**

rla (Guest): You know what? You're right. Too much of one pairing isn't that good. I'll switch it up this time.

Kid (Guest): I was thinking about it, and then I realized that it would be cool to match up a Kuudere character with one that was hyperactive. :D

MiloMilkshake: I wonder what I have under my sleeve too. I don't know until I actually write it out~ (No planning is my way of doing things. Which is how the plot of We Will Always Be Together came out.)

meme (Guest): I'm very happy to hear that.

GAT-X105VividPanzer: My writing speed depends on how interested I am to put the story out. :3

Revengermajestyliberator: I can imagine a lot of arguments in the girl's futures…

anto334: They had to, to be a part of the film.

meme (Guest): I'm continuing it right now. :D

Honoka Harlaown: Thank you.

**Each chapter (with the exception of the first and last chapters) will be named according to the anime episode it corresponds with. And since I've been writing so much HonoMaki and EriNozo, I decided I would change it up a bit with different pairings.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Love Live.**

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Before the shooting ever started, Honoka would have never imagined herself skipping down the school hallway. Or even complaining about the school closing down from lack of students. Yet she had done both of those things now, for the sake of the documentary. Which the cast had just learned wasn't a documentary but a serialized live-action TV show based on the growing popularity of school idols. Needless to say, she was very pissed off. She had only joined to earn spending money for games and the like, not to actually act the way she had to. The information passed out to the students only stated that they needed girls to participate in filming the "documentary" and that it wouldn't be hard work. No wonder not that many girls had shown up. Documentaries aren't very fun to film, and most students preferred being famous through TV shows. At least now Honoka knew why she shouldn't trust other people.

Although she really wished her family hadn't gotten included, not to mention another school on top of that. UTX Academy's girls were at least more suited for the screen than the ones selected from Otonokizaka, though Honoka wouldn't go so far as to say she liked them. The leader of the "school idol group" from that school, Kira Tsubasa, got on her nerves.

"A-Rise's and Muse's First Meeting!"

"Ah~ Your unearthly beauty takes my breath away! Please, say you'll go out with me!" Tsubasa said passionately, going down on one knee and holding a rose up to an astonished (read: partially disgusted) Honoka. Thankfully, they weren't on camera. This wasn't a part of the script. It was just the introductions so that the girls would get used to seeing each other more often. But it was too soon for Tsubasa to be asking the lead character to go out with her. They had met a mere five seconds ago; Honoka barely knew her name and she was pretty sure Tsubasa had no clue what her name was, though she highly doubted that the other girl cared about that small detail.

"Sorry. I'm not into…you." Honoka said, unable to come up with another way to put it gently. However, it didn't seem to dissuade Tsubasa, as she moved on to Umi, spouting the same line she had used on Honoka. As Honoka watched the other girl with a sense of loathing, Tsubasa's two "group" members came up to her.

"Sorry about Tsubasa. She's been like this for a while now." Honoka had to think before remembering the speaker's name. It was Toudou Erena, and clinging to the girl's arm was Yuuki Anju.

"Ever since we started dating, she's been feeling like a third-wheel. But there's no way she could find someone on her own so we dragged her into this documentary thing." Anju explained. "Did we make a mistake?" Honoka supposed she must have been making a weird face at her and decided to get into character to make the meeting better.

"No, you didn't! I'm Kousaka Honoka, the leader of Muse! Nice to meet both of you!" She grabbed both of their hands and shook them vigorously, remembering to grin as she did so.

"Um…There's no need to act in front of us…" Anju said slowly. Honoka exhaled a sigh of relief.

"You could tell it was an act?" She asked. "I'm probably in for more training then…" Her energy level had increased a bit from the near nothing it was at the beginning of the shoot, but it was nowhere near what "Honoka" was supposed to have. She looked over to see how Tsubasa was faring and found that the poor girl had given up at Kotori. The UTX student had sat down on the dusty ground with her hands over her ears as Kotori knelt in front of her, no doubt explaining about something only the ADHD student could see. Tsubasa's rose blew away in a gust of wind and Honoka felt a rush of pity for the girl. No one deserved such a fate as listening to Kotori ramble away at them. Maybe she should go and find Umi to put an end to Tsubasa's torture.

"Umi-chan!" She shouted, waving at the other girl as she came close. She immediately slapped her hand over her mouth. She had never addressed anyone with the suffix like that, as if they were friends. But she had never addressed the bluenette in any other way than what had been put into her by the production crew, having never interacted with her before the start of the filming.

"Ah, Honoka. What is it?" No doubt thinking it was part of the acting again, Umi broke into a smile, which still looked weird on her face. She still hadn't broken completely free from her emotionless state, but she was slowly getting there, much like Honoka was starting to grasp the energy needed for her part.

"You don't need to act right now, Umi-chan." Honoka groaned. It was just so natural for her to say it now, having had it beat into her so she could play the part of a childhood friend accurately. As a look of confusion passed over Umi's face, one that looked a lot more convincing than her earlier smile, Honoka continued. "The cast from the other school just arrived, and Kotori-chan-" Honoka cringed again at the added suffix. "-is treating one of them to a lesson on rivulers."

"I understand." Umi headed off, though Honoka hadn't told her where exactly her ADHD friend was. Not that Honoka really cared. Umi seemed to have a GPS sensor for where Kotori was at all times as her real childhood friend. Honoka didn't want to go and see if Tsubasa was really saved or not, so she decided to go and find some of the other cast. She was thinking too much like "Honoka" now. She had never wanted to _find_ other people before, but now she did. Sighing, she decided to see where the third-years were.

Honoka found Eri and Nozomi exactly where she knew they would be when they were not filming or in class, in the Student Council room doing their paperwork. Or, they should have been doing their paperwork. Eri, exhausted from the extra duties she had taken on besides her normal class studies, was napping on a pile of papers. Judging from the pen she still held in her hand, she must have succumbed to her exhaustion while trying to continue working. Nozomi was making origami with bits of scrap paper as Maki watched in admiration.

"Oh! Hello, Honoka-chan!" Nozomi called out cheerfully. Maki looked at Honoka, frowned, and turned back to Nozomi. The red-headed first year tugged on the third year's sleeve, gaining her attention again.

"Show me how to make the rabbit again!" Maki demanded, and Nozomi complied. Honoka rolled her eyes, knowing that the spoiled first-year would not have taken interest in, or even noticed, Nozomi if it wasn't for the filming. She couldn't even begin to understand how Nozomi put up with Maki, and crossed over to Eri instead. She was slightly worried that Eri might catch a cold and took off her outer jacket, placing it over the sleeping third-year instead.

Honoka quickly became bored again, with Eri fast asleep, and the only two people awake in the room not paying her attention. Then again, she didn't know why she wanted some attention when she had never wanted it before. She left her jacket on Eri's body and left the room, deciding to go check if Tsubasa had recovered from exposure to Kotori. She found the UTX girls introducing themselves to the two other first-years, with Umi and Kotori nowhere nearby. Tsubasa hadn't recovered completely, as evident from the half-dazed look she still had, but she was functional enough. As usual, several cats sat around Rin's feet, some even rubbing against her legs happily. Rin, on the other hand, was not as happy by the felines around her legs, but at least she wasn't sneezing yet. Honoka realized she had a question for the UTX students.

"Are you acting, like us?" She asked.

"Huh? No, we're actually UTX's school idol group, A-Rise." Erena explained. "We were brought onto the show because of our position, and because 'Muse' needs a rival to work against and we were the closest." For some reason, even though Erena was only being honest, the statement hurt. She and the rest of 'Muse' were fake, merely acting because they were paid for their efforts. She didn't know if A-Rise was being paid, but they were the real deal. She had no idea how they could even begin to compare to actual school idols. Only the first episode had been filmed so far, and, while most of the cast was not needed yet, she and her other two second years had to practice a lot just for the one song they had done. She had no idea how much work it was to become an idol, with the dancing and singing and keeping a cheerful smile on her face, until she had actually tried to do it. It gave her a new respect for idols, but having the UTX school idols in front of her gave her a new goal. She didn't know when she had set her first one, which was to get through the shooting without going insane, but now she wanted to beat A-Rise, even if it was just for a show. The finale of the first season was going to have her lose, she had already known that, but the second finale also had their group losing to A-Rise. There was no way she would be able to whip Muse into shape, not when she had no idea how to do so, by the end of the first season. But if she really worked for it, she should be able to get them to win the second season, despite what the script said. She finally realized what it was she felt. It was pride, pride in her school, which she never knew she had.

Maybe she really could be "Kousaka Honoka", the girl whose charisma got the rest of Muse to follow her to Love Live. But she was going to do it her own way, on her own terms.

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**And that's what happened behind the first episode. Please review and tell me what you think!**


	3. Let's Start Becoming Idols!

**Review Responses**

Revengermajestyliberator: I always thought of Honoka as somewhat not realistic enough, since she somehow pulled together a working idol group in less than a year. Regarding Maki though, that might be the case. If her parents really are that rich, then they would be more concerned about making money and their daughter would not be the top of their priority list.

Nexus Infinity: Yes, Honoka is ready to do something.

Guest: Let's see how well I write an ADHD person…

GAT-X105VividPanzer: Maybe she will, maybe she won't. It depends on how this story goes.

rla (Guest): No love triangle. I don't really want to write that when I'm experimenting with other pairings. Sorry.

anto334: No, this story will not have HonoMaki. I will try another pairing (or two).

30secondstoidealize: They will all eventually be friends, yes.

ch3n: Not really.

Msmusicful: The new pairings will be revealed eventually.

roro (Guest): I am updating.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Love Live.**

* * *

Honoka needed to get the rest of the cast to join her in becoming actual school idols themselves. But how could she, when she had no idea how to even talk to them in a way that didn't seem like she was acting? She never faced something like this before, where she actually wanted to talk to people and get them to help her. She never had to lead people in a certain way. Maybe it would be impossible for her, but that was what "Honoka" was about, doing what seemed impossible. If she harnessed the spirit of her TV personality, she would be able to get them started. Hopefully.

But first, she would have to catch each girl and get them in one place. She would have to secure Niko first, before the older student went home to take care of her younger siblings. Not that she wanted to stop Niko from caring, but she needed her there for the talk. And Honoka knew that Niko would leave soon, since they were finished early for the day.

"Niko-senpai! Wait!" Honoka was barely in time, Niko was just about to walk through the school gate. The black-haired senior turned lightly, glancing to see who was calling her.

"What is it, Honoka?" Niko asked, stopping to face Honoka completely. "Do they need us again or something?"

"Or something! Please, just wait by the tree in the courtyard while I get everyone!" Honoka pleaded, something she had never needed to do in her life. "It's important!"

"I-I guess I could…Just don't take too long, okay?" Niko said, walking off in the direction of the tree Honoka had indicated. Honoka breathed a sigh of relief. Next, she would go after the first year prankster and her victim, both of whom were most likely by the llama stables. Cats liked to take naps in the hay that was in the stables, and Hanayo liked seeing Rin with cats. She ran over, and sure enough, the two were there.

As per usual, Rin was looking extremely uncomfortable and unhappy while Hanayo was almost fangirling as she took photos of her friend. But when Honoka drew near, Rin seized on an opportunity for escape.

"Honoka-senpai, what brings you here?" Rin asked, forcing Hanayo to stop taking pictures to give her senior the proper respect. The orange-haired girl then took her chance to get away from the cats, some of which followed her anyway.

"Group meeting! By the tree in the courtyard!" Honoka said, slightly out of breath. It wasn't a long distance from the front gates to the stables, but she wasn't very used to running yet.

"Huh? But-" Hanayo was cut off as Rin grabbed her arm.

"You heard the senpai! Let's go!" Rin practically dragged Hanayo off, most likely just wanting to get away from the felines. Now for the ADHD kid and her permanent companion, or, Honoka's "childhood friends". She knew that Kotori liked being close to the sky, or at least, Honoka thought she did. Either way, it wouldn't hurt to check the roof, though she made sure not to run this time.

"Look, Umi-chan! It's a dragon!" Kotori shouted, pointing up at a cloud. Honoka, having come up silently, didn't see how the cloud resembled a dragon in any shape or form. Umi nodded, gazing up at the cloud that Kotori had pointed to. Honoka noticed that the two of them were holding hands as they gazed skyward. "And that cloud over there looks like a unicorn!" Umi agreed again, following Kotori's gesture to another cloud. Honoka didn't really want to interrupt them, but she had no idea how long Niko would be willing to wait. And she still had three other people to get after the two of them.

"Kotori-chan, Umi-chan." Honoka still hated addressing the two almost complete strangers so intimately, but she had no choice in this situation. Umi turned to her immediately and tugged on Kotori to get her to turn as well.

"Honoka-chan!" Kotori pulled free from Umi's hand and ran over to Honoka, eveloping the surprised teen in a hug. "Come and look at the clouds with us!" She was pulled forward by surprising force to where Umi still stood. "Look, look!" Kotori shouted excitedly, pointing at what looked to be the largest cloud in the sky. "That must be Laputa!"

"Yeah…" Umi said slowly, responding vocally to Kotori's statements for the first time. Honoka hadn't known that other people watched Studio Ghibli films like her enough to make outlandish statements at a public setting. But before she could start a conversation about the films, she remembered that she needed them somewhere else besides the roof.

"This is sudden, but I need you both down by the tree in the courtyard. I still need to get some people so just head down there!" Honoka ran off at Umi's nod, now aiming for the Student Council room.

Eri and Nozomi were working on the paperwork they hadn't tackled yet. Maki, however, was proving to be a distraction as she constantly tried to take Nozomi's attention back on herself.

"Eri-senpai, Nozomi-senpai, Nishikino-san!" All three looked at Honoka with varying reactions. Eri looked surprised, Nozomi gave a knowing smile, and Maki glared in irritation. "Sorry to bother you, but I need everyone to meet at the tree in the courtyard."

"Right now? I guess, if it's that important." Eri said, placing her pen down on the table and stood up.

"I'll come too." Nozomi said, also putting her pen down. Maki didn't answer, but clung to Nozomi's arm as the three girls left the room.

"I gathered everyone here for a very good reason." Honoka was more nervous than she had ever been in her life. Then again, she would be trying to do something she never did before, or ever thought she would do. "Let's start becoming idols."

"You mean the episode we're in the middle of shooting?" Niko asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's what you called us here for?"

"No, not that! I mean we actually become idols!" At the new statement, she could see the disinterest in most of the girl's eyes. Then again, she couldn't expect them to jump up and want to join right away. They were all worked hard for the production, and she knew that if she were asked to put more work in to become actual idols, she wouldn't do it.

"I'm sorry. But I still have my family to take care of. I'll have to refuse." Niko turned away. "See you tomorrow." With that, the black-haired senior left the group, heading to the gates.

"I don't really want to work harder than we already do…sorry, Honoka-senpai." Rin apologized.

"I'm with Rin-chan…It's hard to act as it is…" The two first years bowed their heads apologetically and left the gathered girls.

"I still have to do Student Council work besides the filming. Sorry, Honoka." Eri said. "I'd best head back now."

"Me too…I wish I could, but I can't." Nozomi said sadly. The two third years went back to the Student Council room.

"I don't want to work with you at all." Maki said rudely, turning and running away from the group, but not after the older students. She seemed to be heading toward the gate, heading home.

"I guess that means you two don't want to either?" Honoka asked dejectedly, directing her question to the last two people who had remained.

"No, I want to do what you said! I'll do it, Honoka-chan!" Kotori said cheerfully.

"Kotori, you weren't listening to what Honoka was saying at all." That was the longest sentence Honoka had heard Umi utter outside of their acting lines. She felt depressed though. If Kotori didn't know what she was joining up with, then there was no point. Maybe they wouldn't become idols after all.

"I know that, Umi-chan. But I think that we need to do this with Honoka-chan." Kotori said, her eyes looking at Honoka warmly. "I will help you."

"Then I'll become an idol too." Umi said, immediately following Kotori's statement. Honoka felt a rush of appreciation for the two second years. At least it was a start toward the idols she wanted them all to be by the end of the season.

* * *

**And that's the end of the first episode.**


	4. First Live!

**Review Responses**

rla (Guest): Yeah, it kind of is. I keep wanting to put Honoka and Maki together...

MiloMilkshake: I'll try to get Maki to stop being so clingy. (Maki: No!)

Revengermajestyliberator: It's kind of following the order that the girls join the group.

anto334: I haven't decided which way it will go yet. Tsubasa might just get a date~ or not.

* * *

"One, two, three, four, five six, seven, eight!" Umi chanted, clapping along to the rhythm. She was keeping count for Kotori and Honoka as they went through the dance steps for "Start Dash" again for practice. Honoka briefly wondered how shocked the production crew would be if they saw how hard she and the other two second years were working to perfect their routine. The only time all nine girls had practiced together so far was to film the opening sequence, which only needed to be filmed once. In fact, Honoka, Umi, and Kotori weren't required to practice so much for this song. But the three of them had decided they would actually try and match the practice their TV roles were going to do.

Honoka sat down on the towel they had spread nearby when Umi called for a break. Her stamina was still not that good and her breath came in short pants. But she had never been so excited to be exercising in her life and the feeling was exhilarating. It was even better than beating a final boss without casualties or completing the route of the hardest girl on a dating sim. In fact, Honoka had been going home tired every afternoon and, without playing a single game, collapsed on her bed to sleep. The ADHD Kotori was more subdued during the school day and filming thanks to the extra exertion she did on a daily basis, which made it easier on Umi. There seemed to be no downsides to the idea of becoming actual idols themselves. As Honoka thought this over in her mind, a cold something touched her cheeks and she looked up.

"Here." Eri smiled, handing her the cold water bottle she had put against the ginger's face. Honoka accepted it gladly, opening it and taking a swig of the refreshing liquid. "Working hard?"

"Of course. You are too, Eri-senpai?" Honoka asked. She was wondering why the blonde had come down to watch them when she should have been working on paperwork.

"I was, but Nozomi has turned Maki into quite the diligent worker. Now I have more time to rest instead of worrying about school affairs." Eri took off her shoes and sat down next to Honoka. "Or, I can help you become an idol."

"You will?" Honoka asked with a confused tilt of her head. She didn't want to take Eri away from whatever she needed to do. But there was something much more pressing on her mind. "Wait…Nozomi-senpai turned Nishikino-san into a student council member?" She couldn't believe it. Maki seemed to be the type who would refuse to do any sort of work so the fact that she had been doing so much work for the Student Council seemed a bit unbelievable.

"Kind of. Somehow Nozomi got Maki working for the Council. I don't know how, myself." Eri looked around. "There she is now." Honoka looked past Eri to see what the older student was looking at and saw Maki walking between the buildings with scrolls of paper under her right arm while several rolls of tape decorated her left arm, which she was using to carry a small step-ladder. Vaguely, Honoka remembered that opening day was coming soon and the student council would need to start hanging posters that announced events. As they watched, the red-haired first-year started hanging up one of the scrolls without any help from other council members.

"Honoka-chan!" Honoka tore her gaze away from the first-year and focused on Kotori. "Oh, good afternoon, Eri-senpai." Having noticed the older student, Kotori greeted her properly and bowed before turning back to the ginger-haired girl. "Honoka-chan, if you're ready, we're going to start practice again!" Honoka looked at Eri, not quite wanting to leave the blonde alone.

"Go on, Honoka. I'll go help Maki. I think she needs it." Eri waved and headed off in the direction of the person needing her aid. Maki was having trouble hanging the paper, she couldn't hold up both sides of the large paper since she was the only one working on it. Eri met up with her, then hurried off to get another stepladder or something similar.

"Let's do this, Kotori-chan." Honoka put her bottled water down and followed Kotori to where Umi was waiting for them. This time, Umi danced along with them as they had memorized the beat that they needed to dance to. Now they just had to practice singing as they danced, something they hadn't mastered yet. But with each rendition of the song, they got better at it, more confident.

Honoka grew used to the exertion it took to run in the morning and at night, in addition to the practice Umi had put in place. By purposely working harder for a song, they knew they had raised the expectation level of the production crew for their next dance attempt. It was all a part of Honoka's plan to get all of the girls into her idol group, because there was no way any one would be able to perform well on solo practice alone. To dance a group song, all of the members would be required to practice together, and that was what Honoka wanted. It didn't matter if they got mad at her, as long as they were all working harder to dance better.

"So will you two join now?" Honoka asked, being confronted by Rin and Hanayo after a botched dance practice. Thanks to the newly raised bar, the girls weren't quite reaching what the production crew expected of them. All of them had been forced to stay later for the dance practice so that they could film a better opening sequence than the previous one. No doubt that by dancing so well for the performance of Start: Dash had left the production crew wanting something better for their opening theme dance. Rin crossed her arms and Hanayo did the same, simply to mimic Rin's position.

"We'll consider it." Rin finally decided. It was better than outright getting rejected, like before. That was when they didn't need to put in as much work but now they all had to.

"But! You have to get Nishikino-san first or else we're not in!" Hanayo added. Rin shot her friend a look. "What? I thought I'd better make it a challenge."

"Fine. I'll get Nishikino-san into the group. And then you two will join?" Rin and Hanayo nodded and the three girls shook on the deal.

* * *

**Next Episode: MakiRinPana!**


	5. MakiRinPana

**Review Response**

anto334: Honoka will reach out to Maki in this chapter but the chances of HonoMaki happening in this Fanfiction is low. I apologize.

rla (Guest): Nothing is romantic yet. ;D

hshh: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

GAT-X105VividPanzer: I think the website was down for a while because I couldn't update until late in the day.

Revengermajestyliberator: I'm not trying to follow the anime plotline exactly and therefore Maki will be joining the group first, if Honoka succeeds in getting her.

Msmusicful: The beginning of the real Muse, not the televised Muse, if you understand what I mean.

**I think I forgot the disclaimer in the last chapter…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Love Live or anything mentioned in this chapter.**

**Warning: This fanfic is definitely not HonoMaki and anything that implies a relationship between the two is strictly friendly. I am not trying to write HonoMaki, for this one instance.**

**Now, without further ado or interruptions by myself, on with the story!**

* * *

Since the newest song they would need to perform for the show wasn't until the sixth episode and they were on the fourth episode, Honoka blew off her practice to do the challenge Hanayo had given her. Maki was the hardest of the three first-years to attract into the group. Honoka didn't understand why, but the red-head seemed to hate her more than she hated anyone else in the cast. Every time Honoka had tried to approach the girl, she had been either rebuffed or avoided completely. Any other member of the cast could approach Maki and talk with her, but if Honoka approached her with anyone, Maki would glare at her the whole time. Maki wouldn't talk to her, even when she approached with Nozomi, who had the most success with the first-year out of the entire cast. She didn't count the times they had rehearsed their lines together, because it wasn't really talking.

"I missed her again…" Honoka hung her head. She had been waiting outside the first year classroom for her target, but she had forgotten that there were two doors and Maki had left through the other one. Running in the halls wasn't allowed but Honoka followed Maki as quickly as she could, tracking the girl to the best of her ability without getting discovered. She followed Maki to the girl's bathroom and pretended to be washing her hands when the younger student had finished, before following her back out. Honoka tracked Maki halfway to the Student Council room before the red-head suddenly changed direction and headed out of the school building. To Honoka's utter confusion, Maki ended up leaving school grounds with no intention of returning. With nothing to do, she decided to ask the person closest to Maki at school.

"You want to get Maki-chan to join you?" Nozomi asked. The two of them were standing in the hall outside the Student Council room while Eri continued to study inside. "And she's avoiding you so you came to me instead? I was wondering why she hadn't shown up yet…"

"Oh, she went home. I saw her leave." Honoka felt like she should explain how she witnessed Maki leaving and why, at least to Nozomi. "It's kind of my fault."

"I think I might be able to help you. Wait for me inside the room." Nozomi's tone left no room for argument even though her eyes still shone with mischief. Honoka let herself into the Student Council room quietly, so she wouldn't disturb Eri. The blonde looked up and smiled before returning to her textbook. She walked over to the window and gazed out at the sky, wondering what Nozomi was doing. She got her answer in a few seconds when the third-year barged in, slamming the door open. Honoka looked over at Eri quickly to see if she had been disturbed, but to her surprise, Eri was continuing to read without any break in her concentration. "Hey, Honoka-chan. Are you up for a sleepover tonight?"

* * *

Honoka packed all of the things she felt she would need in her Sword Art Online backpack, but ended up carrying the extra package in briefcase-like suitcase. She knew her parents didn't really care if she slept somewhere else, as long as she called them in the morning. They already knew she would sometimes sleep out when there were limited items to be bought, she was a professional at sleeping anywhere after all. In fact, her younger sister seemed almost happy that Honoka would be spending the night out of the house, though Honoka suspected that it was because of the package she was bringing with her. She hurried to Nozomi's apartment, knowing that haste was key to their plan.

Honoka knocked rapidly on Nozomi's door, having cut it close according to her watch. Nozomi opened it and smiled when she saw who it was. "Good evening." The older student greeted gently.

"Good evening, Nozomi-senpai." Honoka said, walking in when motioned to do so. Nozomi closed the door behind her.

"My room's over there, you can put your things down there. Start setting up by the TV, it's over there, I'm still making dinner." She was wearing an apron, now that Honoka was paying a bit more attention. Nozomi went back into the kitchen and Honoka went into her senior's room. Despite the twin-sized bed against the wall, three futons lined the floor. She put her backpack down in a corner, out-of-sight, and took the briefcase back to the living room where the TV was. She opened the case and took out her precious, limited edition Wii, along with its accessories. She slowly started to set the system up with the TV in Nozomi's house. As she worked, the doorbell rang and Nozomi headed to open it. Honoka heard the conversation that took place.

"Good evening, Nozomi-senpai." She heard Maki say. "I brought something for you."

"I love beef! Thanks, Maki-chan!" Nozomi gushed. "I'll put it in the fridge for now, I've already planned dinner tonight."

"Okay. I put my stuff in your room?" Nozomi must have nodded because Honoka heard the door shut and the two sets of feet headed in different directions. "Is someone else sleeping here tonight too?"

"Yeah, I invited someone else to the sleepover today~"

"Who is it? Eri-senpai?" Maki's voice was closer, having come out of the room. Honoka remembered to continue setting up the system, having paused to listen in on the conversation. Nozomi hummed a tune, which Honoka recognized as Start: Dash, having heard it so many times while preparing for it. Maki finally noticed the sounds of a second person in the room and came over to investigate. Honoka plugged the power for the Wii in and the system was ready to go. Of course, she had brought games as well, which she put on the side of the TV stand. Only now did she look at the first-year. The look of utter revulsion on Maki's face was hard to put a positive spin on, only the plan that Nozomi had come up with kept her from giving up on the spot. Following what Nozomi had outlined for her, Honoka ignored the look and sat down on the floor, taking a Wii remote from her case.

* * *

"_What games should I bring?" Honoka had asked after learning that she would need to bring something, preferably a video game._

"_Anything competitive. It should be simple enough to grasp the controls and purpose easily, but challenging to keep her attention." Nozomi had responded._

"_Then…Super Smash should work…" Honoka mused. "And I'd better bring some extras in case she gets bored of one."_

"_Whatever it is, just set it up and start playing it. Pretend she isn't there. If she's curious enough, which she will be, she will watch you play several rounds from behind you. Then she'll sit near you to get a better view of the controls. Just keep playing for a bit longer, and ask if she wants to play if you see her start getting into the game. Play a bit with her, then set her on a single player course. That should get you into a higher position in her eyes, though she still might not join."_

"_Then how will that help me?"_

"_It should be enough to talk to her comfortably. I can't go into it any more. It's personal to her, after all."_

* * *

Honoka sighed and picked the Super Smash Bros. icon from the game menu, waiting for the game to load. As soon as it had, she skipped past the opening theme sequence and went straight into a brawl set-up screen. She set it so that each of the fighters had five lives. She opened all three COM options, setting each to five, before changing her on-screen name and selecting a character. She decided on Link, being the character she was the most accustomed to, leaving the CPU's on the random selection. She was aware of gaze behind her from her audience, thankful that she was showing Maki a game, not anything else. If it was a game, Honoka could focus on it alone and shut out the fact that she had someone watching her.

She was much more skilled at the game than she remembered. She would have to set the skill level of the CPU's higher to even have a fair fight. Maybe she should turn on items to make the game more interesting… By the end of the second round, during which she had set the CPUs to the highest level, Maki was seated on the floor next to her, watching with more attention than she had ever given anything that Honoka had seen before. As Honoka started the game again, she noticed how Maki's eyes traveled swiftly from the screen to the remote in her hands and back again, over and over. She focused on the game so that she wouldn't get distracted and ruin the moment.

"Go, go, go, go…" She heard Maki mutter under her breath. It had been a tougher battle now that she had added items to the match. Only her character and the CPU, Yoshi, were still on the battlefield, both with one life left. A time bomb dropped near her character so she made Link pick it up and throw it at Yoshi, starting a countdown in her mind. The bomb went off and Yoshi was sent flying off the screen. Maki cheered loudly, Honoka had almost forgotten about her audience.

"You want to play with me?" Honoka asked, leaning forward to grab a second Wii remote from the case and held it front of Maki. The red-head took it from her grasp without a word but Honoka could see the excitement in those violet orbs. She lowered the level of the CPU's and selected another character, one that she wasn't as familiar with. She ended up picking Pikachu, liking the character because it was both cute and strong. Maki immediately picked Link, the character Honoka had just abandoned. Shrugging, Honoka started the game, picking a stage at random. She thought she had better go easy on Maki as it must have been her first time playing, though she realized she had underestimated the younger girl as she was knocked off the stage within 30 seconds of the brawl starting.

Honoka lost. Even though she was the one with the experience in playing the game, Maki had been really watching when Honoka had used Link in her previous battles. All of Maki's attacks connected with her targets, and Honoka felt she had been lucky that she had managed to knock Link off once.

"Let's go again." Maki requested, speaking to Honoka for the first time without any anger or irritation in her voice, just child-like excitement.

"I have a better idea. Try this mode…" Honoka switched the game over to the single player mode, so Maki could challenge the All-Star game. The All-Star game had three levels, easy, medium, or hard, but the player only had one life. They would have to battle past all the characters and bosses that the game had to offer, with only three health refills total for uses in between battle when the player got too damaged. This she quickly explained to Maki before letting the girl charge on the single player mode by herself.

* * *

The game was all Maki would talk about over the dinner they ate. Honoka had never seen such a big smile on the red-head's face before this time, and she wondered why such a spoiled girl let her intelligence waste away. She had heard from Rin that Maki's marks weren't that good, but the way that Maki had picked up on all of Link's abilities and attacks just from watching Honoka play several times seemed to remark on how smart the first-year actually was.

"Do you have any other games?" Maki asked as she helped Nozomi clear away the dishes.

"Yeah, I have some others here, and more at home." Honoka observed the look of wonder in Maki's eyes. "We can play later if you want."

"Yeah!" Maki said cheerfully.

"Um, I actually wanted to ask you…would you help me in my idol group?" Almost immediately, Maki became guarded again.

"No. I told you before, I have no intention of helping you." Maki walked away to the TV, where she sat down and started playing again. Honoka looked around helplessly and caught Nozomi's eye. The older girl shook her head and started washing the dishes.

* * *

Honoka and Maki went to sleep first, both of them taking their baths before Nozomi did. The third-year was still in the bath tub at the moment, so they decided to choose their futons. As the two of them lay on their chosen place for the night, the silence became unbearable.

"I really think that if you join, it will help us a lot." Honoka said, not knowing where she was going with it.

"I told you already. I don't want to help you." Maki responded.

"It's not just me though. It'll help everyone, you included."

"Still. I don't have to do what I don't want to, and you can't force me."

"Why do you hate me so much?" Honoka finally decided to ask, not caring if it was a rude question.

"I don't hate you. I just don't like you."

"That's the same thing, isn't it?"

"No it isn't."

"Well, at least you're talking to me. That's better than where I was earlier today. I'll leave it at that, I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"I've been trying to talk to you ever since we started filming the TV show, same like everyone else."

"Really? …I'm sorry…"

"Why?"

"For avoiding you all this time…"

"We can change that now, right? We're friends, aren't we?"

"We are?"

"Well, yeah. We've been working together for a few weeks now, so I sure hope we're friends."

"I guess…Hey, Honoka-senpai?"

"What, Nishikino-san?"

"Maki. Call me Maki."

"Maki-chan? Is that okay?"

"Yeah, and I'm really sorry for behaving like I have so far. It's just that…"

"Just…what?"

"I've been…kind of jealous…of you…"

"Of me? You have everything you've ever wanted, right? What is it about me that someone as smart as you can get jealous about?"

"Family. A warm home. Where I can go to and see that there are people who care about how I feel when I come back. I don't have those things, and honestly, I'd rather have that than all the wealth that I have right now." Honoka felt bad for thinking Maki was only a spoiled brat now. She reached out in the darkness until she found Maki's hand and gripped it tightly.

"Muse can be a family. It's just like on TV, but we'll make it real for us." Even in the dim light, she could see the smile on Maki's face, and knew she had said the right thing.

"Will Muse accept someone like me?"

"Of course. Everyone in the TV group is already a part of the family. We just have to make everyone see that fact." Nozomi had joined them now. "Now, time for sleep. We have school tomorrow."

* * *

"There! I got Maki-chan to join our group." Honoka informed Rin and Hanayo before school the next morning.

"Great. We'll _consider_ joining the group." Hanayo said, smirking at Honoka's shocked look.

"B-But-"

"We never said we would join the group. We only said we'd consider it if you got Nishikino-san." Rin sighed.

"We'll join. Kayo-chin's just messing with you again."

"Oh, come on Rin-chan. It was working…"

"Then you'll join?" Honoka felt more hopeful.

"Well, of course~" Hanayo grinned. "Muse is a family!"

That made a total of six members, and now she could go make the real Idol Research Club. Things were only going up, and Honoka wondered what lay in her future from now on.

* * *

**Next episode: Niko Strikes!**

**Please leave a review or constructive criticism.**


	6. Niko Strikes!

**Review Responses**

Revengermajestyliberator: Here's the newest update and the next chapter should be up tomorrow.

KevinCruelz: Just trying to make it realistic.

lychee-ran: Yes to HonoEri, no to NozoMaki. The other pairings are good, but Niko will not be with Tsubasa.

GAT-X105VividPanzer: I would own a SAO bag if I were a bit more interested in the anime. It lost me after eight episodes so... Plus games are fun. I don't know why I keep using Super Smash Bros though...

rla (Guest): Okay, I will try to speed up the romance. And not have Eri or Nozomi show up in this chapter at all. Sorry!~

anto334: Maki-chan's a genius, even if she doesn't use it. Also, I'm sorry but HonoNiko is not going to happen either.

nyanpassu (Guest): If you like NozoEri, then I have other fics with that as the main pairing.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Love Live or anything else mentioned in this chapter. They all belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

Honoka was the only person moving in her otherwise still house. The rest of her family was still asleep, not knowing that the usually late sleeper was up and going earlier than she ever had before. She was finally putting her anime goods to use. Her SAO bag carried her school uniform so it wouldn't get wrinkled and dirty when she was exercising. Like the rest of Muse, she had her "exercising" uniform, used only for the film. But she didn't want to wear it because she wasn't exercising for the show, but for her own reasons. So she wore a faded Pokemon t-shirt over a tank-top and knee length cargo shorts, going for comfort, not fashion. Besides, no one was going to see her except the rest of her thus far gathered group.

She was the first one to make it to the shrine which had become their practice ground. Standing on top of the stairs, she took a deep breath of the crisp cool air and smiled. The sun was rising on the horizon, there was still an hour before the school would even open its gates.

"Nice weather today." Honoka looked down at the staircase, where Umi and Kotori were making their way up. Umi gave Honoka a smile, which looked a lot more natural now. Like Honoka, both of them were carrying smaller bags, which held their school uniforms. They also had forgone their TV exercise clothing also for things they felt were much more suited for working out. Umi had a black T-shirt with the words "Punk isn't dead" on it in white, which confused Honoka until she saw what Kotori was wearing. The other girl was wearing a white t-shirt with the words "You are" in black. Both were wearing white shorts with black tights underneath, for ease of movement.

"I couldn't agree more." Honoka said, gazing out over the city she had grown up in. It was strangely quiet, though that may be because the three of them were standing at a shrine when it wasn't a holiday. Either way, the quiet surroundings left a calm feeling on their hearts. The three were still standing still when the first years came clambering up the staircase. Rin was out of breath, Hanayo looked excited, and Maki was on the verge of collapsing back into the warm arms of sleep. The three younger students had agreed with Honoka's sentiment against wearing the exercise outfits provided for them by the production crew and were wearing their own choices. The front of Hanayo's yellow shirt read "I 3 Humanity", a shout-out to the anime series, No Game No Life, and she wore cargo shorts similar to Honoka's. Rin, on the other hand, wore a one-piece dress that had slight frills on the bottom and white tights. Maki was wearing an oversized t-shirt with a sleeping Akagi on it, which was her original artwork turned into a shirt upon Honoka's request. Her shorts were so short that they disappeared under the largeness of the shirt. It seemed as if Maki had simply gotten out of bed and fixed herself up without changing clothes.

"Now that we're all here…physically, at least…" She caught Maki nodding off and motioned for Hanayo to nudge the red-head. Hanayo went a bit further and knocked Maki's legs out from under her by accident, sending the first-year crashing to the ground. Grumbling, Maki got back up, more awake now from the pain. "I'd like to get started on practicing Korekara no Someday, which we will be performing next week."

"But don't we need Niko-senpai for this?" Rin asked. That was true, Korekara no Someday would be performed after they had gotten Niko into the group, according to the TV schedule.

"Yes, but she is still not willing to practice with us." Honoka said.

"Of course I'm not. I have better things to do, you know." Niko was walking up the stairs. As the girls fell silent, the senior walked right past them. She went up to the shrine and tossed a coin in, shook the rope, and clapped her hands together to make a wish.

"S-So-" Honoka decided to continue, despite the fact that her senior was still there. "W-We're going to start practicing for the song now…"

"Quit it." Niko said, shocking the younger girls with how swiftly and quietly she had rejoined them. "Raising the standards of the producers isn't helping anyone. Stop it already and focus more on your high school life." With that, she hurried back down the stairs. "And if you don't hurry, you won't be able to change and make it to school on time."

"Why would Niko-senpai say something like that?" Kotori asked, as they stood there, stunned. "If we perform well, then won't we get a pay raise or something?"

"Even if we don't…we would feel better for knowing we did our best, right?" Umi asked hesitantly, as if she wasn't sure about it.

"Of course we will. If we do our best, then we would have no regrets!" Honoka was determined to make her goal of a full idol group by the end of the first season, and then beat A-Rise in the real Love Live for the second season.

"Still…if we perform well, then everyone else has to catch up with us, right?" Rin asked.

"Won't that cause problems for the third years? They are preparing for college and stuff too…" Maki said thoughtfully. Honoka hadn't thought about that, but from what she could tell, Eri and Niko both had it together enough to make it into the college of their choices. The only problem was Nozomi, but her grades weren't that bad that she wouldn't get into a college. No, there had to be a deeper reason as to why Niko didn't want their extra practice to continue, similar to how Maki didn't want to help her at the beginning. And she was determined to find out what that reason was.

The more she thought about it, the more it seemed true that they would not be able to get Korekara no Someday to the same level as their last few performances if Niko wasn't on board with the rest of them. No matter what, they would now need the black-haired senior to join their idol group in the making. Of course, her siblings would have to be taken into account- her siblings! That must be the center of why Niko was against the extra practice they would need to keep their standard of performance. If they practiced so much, then it would take time away from taking care of her younger siblings, something none of the rest of the cast had to deal with.

"Niko-senpai, please join us. We need you for this too." Honoka approached the girl after school, right after classes so that the senior didn't get a chance to leave yet. Right behind her were Kotori and Umi, both of them focused and determined, much like their leader. Blocking the exit routes were the three first-years, all of whom had come after being summoned to do so by Honoka. Niko had nowhere to escape to.

"I told you to stop practicing. What makes you think I'm going to help you?" Niko retorted, ignoring the looks of her classmates.

"If your siblings are why you don't want the extra practice, we can set up a schedule that will work for all of us. If anything, one of us can go to your house and watch your siblings while you practice." Umi said. "I have everyone's free days already marked down for such an occasion."

"That has nothing to do with it! I still have other things than just watching them!" Niko protested.

"Whatever it is, we will help you too. We're more than just your juniors here, we're friends. Trust us on that, Niko-senpai." Honoka pledged.

"Fine. I'll help you, only for Korekara no Someday. After that, don't bug me again." Niko picked up her bag and stormed out past the first years.

"Is this enough, Honoka-senpai?" Maki asked, watching Niko go.

"For now, it'll do. Don't worry, Niko-senpai will see what we truly do and how fun it is to work as a group than on your own. Wouldn't you agree?"

* * *

**Next Episode: Who'll be the Center?**

**By the way, I did draw a sleeping Akagi…if only I could make it a shirt…that'd be cool…**


	7. Who'll Be the Center?

**This will address the pairings present in this story for the most part, for all those people who are dying to know what pairings are present in this story.**

**Disclaimer: *runs to the top of a mountain* I don't own Love Live! But I wish that the movie already came out here! *listens to the echoes***

* * *

"I understand that we will be filming here later, but what's the point of inviting everyone to the arcade?" Niko crossed her arms as she raised an eyebrow at Honoka. Eri and Nozomi also looked at Honoka for answers, as they had rushed through their student council work at her request. "I mean, you even brought A-Rise!" Upon hearing their group name, the three UTX students stopped doing whatever they were doing (Tsubasa flirting while Anju and Erena watched over her from the side) to see why they had been called.

"It's a good idea to have everyone enjoying themselves together!" Honoka protested. Her true purpose was to integrate the third year actresses with the rest of the group so they wouldn't need much convincing to take part of the real-life Muse that they were trying to create, but that was completely beside the point.

"Even so...don't you think you could have considered the possibility of us having things to do?" Erena brought up, catching on to the topic of the conversation rather quickly. Tsubasa, on the other hand, had lost interest in their talk and had gone back to trying to flirt with the Muse members who were okay with being at the arcade.

"It doesn't matter! As long as everyone has fun, it'd all be worth it!" Honoka urged, turning her back on the people interrogating her.

"This is a waste of time." She heard Niko say. "I'd rather go home." Honoka was about to respond to it when Nozomi cut in.

"Now, now. These sorts of things can't be bad all the time." The third year said, firmly pushing Niko in the direction of the arcade entrance.

"Stop it, Nozomi! I can walk by myself!" Niko complained, the other's response lost as the two entered the arcade. A few seconds passed without either third year returning from the depths of the gaming center, and Eri scooted after them, not wanting to be left behind. Honoka was left with the other two members of A-Rise since their leader had already gone ahead into the building without them.

"Thanks for inviting us, and let's go, Kousaka-san." Anju smiled gently and walked past her to the entrance of the arcade, never letting go of Erena's hand. Honoka returned the smile with one of her own, watching the last of the group go in without her. She then turned away from the arcade; she never intended to go in anyway. She never understood the appeal of such a place, having spent most of her free time sitting at home with her own video games. Arcades were always full of high-energy people, the type of people that Honoka never got along with, until now. Even so, she didn't want to go in yet.

"What are you doing out here by yourself?" The ginger jumped, startled by the voice behind her. Honoka glanced over her shoulder, calming down when she saw it was just Eri. The blonde had her arms crossed, a sign that she wasn't pleased with something, though Honoka wasn't sure what it was. "We're waiting for you in there."

"I just thought I'd wait for everyone to have a chance to be friends before going in." Honoka laughed nervously, staring up at the sky.

"You don't have to lie. Everyone will become friends sooner or later. We're connected by our school idol link, aren't we?" She stared at her senior in a bit of surprise.

"Where did that come from?"

"I stole the script from the director and skimmed it." Eri said, sticking her tongue out in a way that Honoka found extremely adorable. "Come on, you dragged us out here!" The third year linked her arm with Honoka's. "Let's go play!" As strange as it was, Honoka couldn't refuse her senior and allowed the older girl to drag her into the arcade.

The inside of the building was air-conditioned, and a welcome change from the heat outside, though Honoka hadn't noticed the temperature until she had entered the cooler area. While she was pleased that the rest of her companions had paired up to have fun, she wished that they would have tried to do something as a group.

"I guess that can wait until later!" She said with a small giggle to herself.

"Did you say something?" Eri inquired, turning back to Honoka with a questioning look. Honoka shook her head and smiled.

"Nothing!"

"Really?" The blonde tilted her head, still deciding between whether to press further or to lay off for the time being. Honoka nodded, looking around at the pairings. There was the childhood friend duo of Umi and Kotori, energetically hitting a puck back and forth between them...in mid-air. Honoka had to take a second to think about the power and momentum they had to have to be able to hit and return a puck without using a playing surface. She didn't want to get into the middle of that fray, as both sides were diving and jumping around to reach the puck before it hit the ground. Rin and Hanayo were playing skeeball together, though from the looks of deep concentration on their faces, she gathered that they were having their version of a fierce competition. But despite scoring points in different ways, they ultimately ended up with the same score, leading to the two restarting their competition all over again. Honoka had to admit that their gameplay was already pretty good in its own way, being able to match each other's score despite the fact that they were competing against each other. Nozomi and Niko were also holding a competition, but over on the dance games. It seemed more like a contest of silliness, as the point seemed to who could look the most ridiculous while getting the highest rank. In short, it was pretty pointless in Honoka's eyes, but as long as they were having fun, it was fine. Erena and Anju had set up in the photo booth and weren't coming out. Honoka felt that she was perfectly content where she was and didn't want to get any closer to where the two of them were. That left only one member from each idol group-Maki and Tsubasa. To her surprise, the two of them were getting along rather well, with Tsubasa teaching Maki how to play first person shooter games. The redhead did seem to have a passion for video gaming, and Tsubasa was surprisingly not being a flirtatious idiot at the moment.

"Honoka?" Just then, Eri's face entered her range of vision, startling Honoka.

"W-What?" Honoka asked, backing up a few steps.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to race, but your face is red. Are you okay?" Honoka had not been aware that Eri was just as airheaded as the on-screen Honoka was. On another note, she was blushing? But why?!

"I'm fine." Honoka managed to say. "So what did you want to race on?" Eri watched her worriedly, but led her over to the racing game she had found. "Hm...just telling you, I'm very good at video games."

"That has nothing to do with arcade games." Eri said with a smirk, taking Honoka's statement for a challenge.

* * *

"We're still going?!" Niko complained. They had spent approximately two hours in the arcade, simply playing around. Umi and Kotori had kept their version of air hockey up until Umi surrendered to Kotori. They didn't even know their scores and both sides accepted a draw for the result, even though Umi surrendered. Rin and Hanayo soon gave up on trying to out-compete each other on skee ball and moved on to other games to try and beat each other. But as long as they kept trying to fight on games that used scores to determine the winner, they somehow always ended up with the same score. Both Niko and Nozomi had retired to sitting outside with some drinks to relieve their embarrassment after some of the other customers had seen them dancing in the silliest ways they could possibly think of. Honestly, did they think that no one would see them in the arcade? Erena and Anju came out of the photobooth a few minutes before Honoka called all the girls together again, with handfuls of random pictures they took while inside. Apparently, that's all that they were doing the entire time while in the arcade. Maki and Tsubasa now dominated the scoreboards of most of the two player shooting games; both reluctant to leave so soon after they had claimed victory.

"Yep! Next is singing practice!" Honoka grinned. "Let's karaoke!"

* * *

***shoves TsubaMaki at you and then runs away, cackling***

**I don't know why there's such a random and out-of-place pairing.**

**But to make up for my absence in this fandom (and particularly this story), I'll take one one-shot request per reviewer. (Only if you're a member on this site, otherwise I can't really contact you. Sorry guests. *gets on the floor and bows*)**

**Edit: The one-shot request is available only until the next chapter is posted.**


	8. What I Want to Do is

**Yep, TsubaMaki. Let's give this pairing a shot, guys!**

**All of your requests are being processed at the moment and it may take a while before they are actually released so wait a bit, 'kay? :D**

**Also, I know that this episode in the series primarily deals with Eri but for the sake of this story, it's going to focus a bit on Honoka. Actually, yeah, since everything so far is focused behind Honoka's eyes.**

**Still don't own Love Live.**

**Warning: Severe (?) HonoEri ahead. (Or is it EriHono?)**

* * *

"Hey, onee-chan. Why are you doing this?" Honoka paused in her morning rush out the door to stare quizzically at her younger sister. Yukiho yawned widely, still half-asleep since she barely woke up. "You don't get anything out of it...all this effort...It's not like you, nee-chan."

"Yukiho…" Honoka stopped to actually consider the question, her mind blanking out when she tried to address why she wanted to become an actual idol. She didn't know why she was doing what she was doing, only that she had to do it. The real reason, the motive behind all of her actions, Honoka didn't know what that was.

"I have to get ready. On camera today." Her younger sister said, walking slowly away in the direction of the bathroom.

"Honoka-chan, aren't you ready yet?!" She heard Kotori's shout but didn't react to it right away.

"Yeah...why am I doing this? It isn't like me." She mumbled to herself. Even without realizing it of herself, she had been waking earlier than her normal time to do exercises and practice with the rest of the cast. She had been trying to get them all together in the same place to have fun. She called everyone in to get to know each other better. "I don't do that. I hate having people around me. So why…?"

"Honoka-chan! Come out right now or I'm coming in!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Honoka shoved the confusing question aside to focus more on her friends and practice.

Upon arriving at the shrine for their early morning warm-up and stamina training, Honoka was mildly surprised and pleased to see that Niko and Eri had joined them as well. The previous outing to the arcade together seemed to have done the trick to get all the girls into practicing together. Even though the next planned song was Wonder Zone, Honoka had thought it better to begin practicing for No-Brand Girls instead, as the second song would require more memorization of the poses and positions that they would need to do. Wonder Zone would be easier, as it would be intercut with different scenes that they had yet to film, and required very little effort beyond learning the lyrics to the song. However, No-Brand Girls was proving to be a bit harder to learn, as the nonstop dancing would require much more energy than they had exerted before, especially in Honoka's case.

With the time for class to start drawing near, the group disbanded and went their own separate ways to the academy. Umi and Kotori, who normally went to school together, had taken Honoka into their group as well. The three of them walked to and from school together on an almost daily basis now.

"Why do we practice like we are right now?" Kotori repeated. Honoka nodded, wanting to know why the others were practicing so hard since she didn't even know her own reason. "Because you asked us to, Honoka-chan!"

"Kotori's right. You've been encouraging all of us to become idols of our own right, not just fake idols simply because we were in the right place at the right time." It was the longest sentence Honoka had heard Umi utter. She looked at both of the childhood friends in turn, seeing them in a new light. She recognized the changes that being in this show had made on them, and wondered if the show had made changes on the other girls, herself included.

"But more than that, it's also really fun!" Kotori continued, doing a small spin on the spot. "I've never had so many friends before, and we have lots of fun together!"

"Again, Kotori is right." Umi smiled gently, a smile that looked a lot more natural on her now. "It has always been just the two of us."

"Practicing like that...until your energy drops completely...is fun?" Honoka repeated, sounding somewhat disbelieving.

"Yeah! It's a lot of fun!" Kotori said, bouncing ahead eagerly. "Oh, looks like a shooting day." Honoka sped up a bit to look at what Kotori was seeing. The film cars were already on campus, meaning that the girls in Muse would have to be excused from some of their classes to film. The rest of their group was already gathered around the camera crew, waiting to see what they needed to do.

"Nishikino-san!" The three second years had just made into the campus when Tsubasa came barreling past them. The energetic leader of A-Rise was toting a large cloth bag that made a clacking noise with each step she took.

"Don't you have school?" Maki asked bluntly, cutting Tsubasa down.

"B-But I brought the goods!" The idol pleaded. "Look!" She turned to her bag and pulled out two plastic guns. "And I've got the vests and ammo too!"

"That's different." Maki took on an interested expression as she took one of the weapons from Tsubasa and held it in her hands, testing its weight.

"Tsubasa-chan!" Anju and Erena were coming as well, dashing across the crosswalk even though they didn't have the signal to cross.

"You guys keep coming; might as well just transfer over to Otonokizaka." Nozomi teased.

"Ah, but if we did, where would be Muse be?" Erena returned evenly, the two girl's devilish smirks matching for once.

"Jeez, Tsubasa-chan! As the leader of A-Rise, you should show more composure!" Tsubasa flinched slightly as Anju chided her.

"Hey." A single bullet struck Anju on her forehead as she turned to look at who called her. Maki stood there, gun in firing position. Anju pulled the suction-cup bullet from her forehead and threw it to the ground.

"You did not just do that."

"I did." Maki fired another bullet that also stuck to Anju's face. "And I just did it again."

"That's it!" Anju picked up the other gun that Tsubasa had shown Maki and charged the red-head.

"Ah, wait!" Tsubasa shouted, rummaging in her bag. "You forgot your safety wear!" She took a few steps in their direction, waving two vests with her hands.

"We don't need it!" Anju and Maki snarled at the same time, stopping Tsubasa in her tracks again. Honoka sighed, figuring that someone would need to get the girls in line or else they would never get the filming done according to schedule. Not that any of them particularly cared about the production crew, but they had been threatened with pay cuts if each episode didn't come out on a timely basis. Also, Niko would be extremely mad if there were any pay cuts. She walked over to Tsubasa and picked up two handguns from the fallen tote bag. After checking to see if they had ammo, she fired at both fighters at the same time to get their attention.

"We've got filming to do here, so let's get it over with."

"Okay…" Maki sighed, falling into step behind Honoka.

"And A-Rise, you'd better get back to school."

"Eh?!" Erena grabbed Tsubasa by the collar of her shirt uniform and started dragging her leader away. "Noooo!" Anju picked up all the things Tsubasa had brought, cleanly snatching the weapons still in the possession of Maki and Honoka, and trotted after the rest of her group. "Nishikino-saaaaan!"

"I'll see you later, Kira-san!" Maki yelled back, waving. Honoka got the distinct feeling that Maki would have stopped A-Rise from leaving had she not gotten in the way. While effective, Honoka didn't want to feel like the leader for Muse. She wanted them to succeed as an idol group, but she still didn't know her place in the mess.

"Everyone, get ready." Honoka turned to her gathered group, giving them her most confident smile. Umi smiled, Kotori laughed, Hanayo giggled, Rin grinned, Maki sighed, Niko posed, Nozomi smirked, and Eri winked. They were ready for another day of filming, as long as they still had the chance to have fun later. And Honoka wanted to give them that chance, so she pushed them and encouraged them to perform the best that they possibly could.

* * *

"Where'd you learn to shoot?!"

"Excuse me, I taught you!"

With another day of shooting over, Honoka was content just to sit back and watch the battle from the sidelines. The radiant smiles on each of her friends' faces made up for all the hard work they had to do to make their show a success. Even if she still didn't know why she continued push them the way she was, Honoka couldn't help but be happy at their happiness. Even the ones that she thought she would never be able to reach were smiling, laughing together as they fought a mock battle.

"Good work today." As Honoka glanced up to see who it was who spoke, her cheek registered a welcome cold feeling. She took the bottle of water from Eri as the blonde took a seat next to her.

"Same to you. Thanks." She twisted the cap open and drank from it, enjoying the refreshing feeling as water drained down her throat. Satisfied, she made to cap the bottle again when it was taken from her by Eri herself. The blonde lifted the bottle to her lips and finished the rest of the water off. Honoka stared in open-mouthed silence, astonished by the bold actions of her senior.

"Did I do something weird?" Honoka shook her head, realizing with a bit of shame that she had just been staring in silence for a long enough period that even Eri noticed. She decided to change the subject, asking the same question that she had of Umi and Kotori earlier that day.

"Hey, Eri-senpai. Why do you practice so hard, even though you don't have to?"

"Why? Hm...I guess it's 'cause you asked me to." Eri leaned back, bracing herself with arms so that she didn't fall over completely. Honoka watched her, wondering if Eri had any more to say. When no other explanation came, the ginger pressed her senior for more information.

"That would make sense for one day, but for you to suddenly start coming to practice when you haven't come before...it doesn't make any sense, you know?" Honoka scratched her cheek sheepishly, laughing a bit.

"If that doesn't make sense, then tell me why you keep encouraging everyone to do their best. Why you want us all to be together." Blue met blue as Eri fixed Honoka with an intense gaze. Honoka turned her head aside, unable to keep Eri's gaze since she didn't know the answer to Eri's question. She heard the third year sigh. "You have to figure out what it is that you really want, Honoka." Honoka stayed silent, trying to figure out why she did what she did. It kept going back to what Yukiho said, earlier that morning. It wasn't in her character to encourage people to have fun, to hold a group together for no reason.

"Eri-chi! Honoka-chan! Come on! We have to take them down for killing Niko-chi!" The mock battle waged between A-Rise and Muse had very few casualties, all of whom were just sitting on the side and waiting for the next round. Nozomi marched up to the duo even as the rest of Muse held their ground against A-Rise. Rin and Niko were the only ones 'dead' at the moment, but A-Rise hadn't lost a single member, despite being outnumbered.

"Okay, okay." Honoka hadn't heard a word that was said and barely registered the change in situation when a hand appeared in her sight of vision. Eri smiled, holding her hand out in front of Honoka. Hesitantly, Honoka took a hold of the offered hand and let Eri pull her up. The blonde tugged harder than she expected, so that their faces were way too close for Honoka's own comfort. "I'll let you know right now though. I wouldn't have come if anyone else had asked." Honoka took a few seconds before the hidden intent of Eri's statement became clear to her.

"Wait, you mean-?!" Her face was heating up again.

"Eri-chi! Save your flirting for later!"

"Calm down, Nozomi. It's just a game!" Eri laughed, heading to her classmate and taking up a weapon. Honoka just stayed where she was, still blankly staring into space. "Honoka! Let's go!"

"Y-Yeah!" She hurried down to the battlefield, taking a weapon from the fallen Rin.

_Hey, Honoka. What is it that you want to do?_

_ ...I don't know._

* * *

**Yay for fake gun fights!**

**Next episode: Wonder Zone!**

**Which means maid cafe randomness! And more random romance that will appear from nowhere as long as you are in the tall grass! (bad Pokemon reference, I know.)**


	9. Wonder Zone

**Yo, minna-san! I have returned (finally) to the Love Live fandom after spending the last couple months distracted by other yuri pairings and college work.**

**I just realized I skipped over the seventh episode "Elichika" but that doesn't seem to be that much of a problem as Eri is very much in this work from the beginning, so I won't be going back to write it.**

**Honoka seems to be turning into a tsundere as of late.**

**Disclaimer stands as before.**

**Please enjoy! ^-^**

* * *

"Eh? A maid cafe song?!" The producer gave them a hard look after the seemingly unanimous cry of disbelief. Honoka stepped forward, wanting to make her position known to the producer.

"Even if we are supposed to be acting 'school idols', it doesn't mean we have to go along with everything you want us to do! Why should we go film in Akihabara anyway?!" Eri and the rest of Muse looked at her in surprise. Honoka had been fairly okay with following the producer's instructions so far, going to the arcade and practicing karaoke just for the few seconds the scene required, but she didn't think that filming a song in a maid cafe specifically in Akihabara was necessary. If she and the rest of the group went along with it, where would they drag them next? The beach? No, she didn't want to be led around to various places. It was supposed to be a school-based documentary, not a show on school idols and their rise to glory.

"You don't understand, Kousaka-san. You have gained much more popularity than what was originally planned." The producer held up her phone and showed them the chart that ranked TV shows based on popularity. "You nine were going to be the on-camera faces for this school so it doesn't get shut down, but you have become recognized throughout the city as actual idols. It only follows that people want to see more of your idol-like activities."

"But!"

"Of course, you all will be getting larger cuts of the profits as a result of your efforts." Honoka was still not convinced it was a good idea to keep doing what they were doing, even with the promise of more payment.

"I think it's a good thing, that we're getting noticed by all those people." She looked at Eri in surprise, as she hadn't noticed when the older student had gotten behind her. The blonde smiled. "Plus, it's been fun so far, so let's keep going, okay?"

"Well, I guess it's fine. Since I'm not the main focus of this week's episode anyway." Honoka scoffed. She turned to the rest of the group. "All right, let's get going. We've got scenes to shoot."

"Okaaay!" Even she had to smile a bit at the immediate response, though it turned into a scowl when she looked at the uninvited guest.

"...And what are you doing here, Kira Tsubasa-san?" The leader of A-Rise flinched; she had been attempting to disguise herself as a member of the filming team, though it was hard not to recognize her now that Honoka had seen her so many times.

"The more people, the better, isn't that right?" Tsubasa stammered, looking for support from any of the other Muse members. They all looked away, even Maki, though she shot an apologetic look at the UTX student.

The nine girls watched as Tsubasa was dragged off by the other two in A-Rise, after Honoka gave them a call and informed them of their leader's location.

* * *

"Man...this is really embarrassing…" Honoka sighed as she took a seat in the cafe they were filming at. "And restricting...it's hard to move in this dress…" Like the rest of the cast, she was currently wearing a maid uniform, and was grateful that there weren't that many customers in the cafe while the scenes were being filmed. "Although...we'll have to go outside and sin in public...in these outfits…" Honoka resigned herself to her fate, as none of the other girls had any real problems with the script.

"Perk up a little bit."

"Eri-senpai…" She sighed, not in the mood for a lecture, and even frowned when Eri slid into the seat across from her with a parfait. "Um…"

"Want some? It's pretty good." Eri scooped up a bit of the ice cream from the top and offered to Honoka. "Ah~"

She reluctantly obliged, leaning forward and eating the offered bit. "It's a bit sweet."

"I like sweet things." Eri said, happily digging into her parfait. Honoka rested her head on her hand, watching her senpai eat. "Oh, look, look!" She followed the older student's gaze to where Kotori was carefully bringing a cup with what she could only describe as intertwining heart straws in pink juice over to where Nico and Maki were sitting.

"Tsubasa-san's not going to like that." Honoka commented, holding back a laugh at both of their disgusted faces. She looked around, trying to find Nozomi among all the people in the cafe. "And Nozomi-senpai managed to break the pen she was holding." Eri turned around, still eating her parfait.

"Now Umi-san's apologizing to her, for not keeping an eye on Kotori-san." There was a loud clatter as both Nico and Maki got up at the same time and walked away from the drink, mumbling something about needing the restroom so that Kotori's feelings wouldn't be hurt. "Do you think that it'll make it into the episode?"

"I hope not. Otherwise, we'll have A-Rise at our front gates tomorrow again. Though, judging from this morning, she'll probably be there anyway." Honoka shrugged. "Almost like she goes to Otonokizaka."

"She is acting alongside us." Eri reminded her.

"Yeah, but she's an actual school idol. Shouldn't she act, I don't know, more restrained?" The third year wasn't listening, as she was trying to get the last scraps of her parfait from the bottom of the cup with her spoon.

"Kousaka-san! We need you over here!" Honoka pushed her chair back and stood up, stretching. Eri was still working at the last of her parfait but she stopped long enough to give Honoka a smile.

"Okay, I'm coming." She said, patting Eri on her head as she passed. Her senior was too childish at times, she thought.

* * *

The merchandise shop had a lot of seemingly normal household objects with various prints of idols pasted on. Honoka picked up a pencil bag that had her name and face on it and examined it. "Did you ask them to make this just for this shoot?" She directed the question at the producer, who had been following their course the whole day.

"No. I told you didn't I? Your group is famous enough to make merchandise off of, even though your idol group isn't real."

"I think that's pretty amazing. Seeing as we've only done eight episodes so far." Umi said. The rest of their group had dispersed in the shop, as only Honoka, Umi, and Kotori needed to be filmed up close while looking at their goods.

"I guess so." Honoka looked around as the cameras were being prepared. All of the real school idol groups were smiling so brightly in the pictures displayed around the shop. She wondered she was able to smile that brightly for their fans. "Oh yeah...we have fans now."

"Yep! Lots and lots of them! Enough to get stuff made of us!" Kotori piped up. "Didn't you know?"

"No, I'm sure Honoka knows. Right?" Umi and Kotori were both looking at her with such warm and gentle smiles. She imagined what her life would have turned out to be like if she had met them when she was younger. Probably a lot more hectic, given both of their seemingly clashing personalities.

"Yeah. I know." Kotori gasped.

"That was a really nice smile just now, Honoka-chan!" She scratched at her cheek, a bit embarrassed when everyone else looked at her after Kotori's remark. She looked at their merchandise again, not wanting to feel their gazes on her anymore.

"Huh? Everyone's here, but there's nothing of Maki-chan." Umi peered around her shoulder.

"You're right. It's like someone bought it all as soon as they could. But who?"

In a room far away from the idol merchandise shop, a certain idol leader sneezed in the middle of the lecture she was being given by her friends on wasting too much money on impractical products.

* * *

**Is Tsubasa a joke character? I think I'm starting to write her as one.**

**Next time: No 'Senpai' Allowed!**


	10. No 'Senpai' Allowed

**Time for the beach episode! *confetti***

**Pushing their relationship too fast isn't exactly a good thing in a story. Although Eri might think otherwise.**

**Disclaimer still stands as is.**

* * *

"Onee-chan, you're leaving today for the trip?" Honoka zipped up her bag for the trip, having just finished packing her clothes for the overnight stay she and the rest of Muse would have to make at a villa far from their school. "I thought the filming wouldn't start until tomorrow." Yukiho was in her school uniform, as they were leaving on a school day.

"We're leaving a day ahead of schedule so that there wouldn't be complications with uninvited guests." Honoka explained as she picked up the bag and headed out her bedroom door past her younger sister. "Everyone has permission from the chairwoman, since we're working on a 'school project' and all."

"Ehh? Sucks to be you then." Yukiho followed her sister down the stairs to the back door. "Onee-chan's a NEET after all."

"Shut up! It's not like you're any better, Yukiho." Honoka opened the door and stepped through. "Tell mom I'll see her in a few days."

"Have a safe trip." Yukiho waved until Honoka closed the door before lowering her hand. "She didn't deny it though...that she's a NEET."

"I'm not a NEET...right? I'm an idol now…" Honoka muttered to herself as she made her way to the train station, where she would meet with the rest of her group. "Though I still don't like spending so much time in the sun...and the idea of spending a few days at the beach makes me ill...that doesn't mean I'm a NEET!" Slowly, she became aware of the stares of the passerby at her declaration. She hurried on, hoping that they would ignore her strange outburst.

"Okay, we're just missing Nico-chi now." Nozomi commented when Honoka finally made it to the train stop they were meeting at. She took a few seconds to catch her breath, listening to the conversations the other members were having regarding their trip.

"Maki-chan, Maki-chan! Let me see the villa again!" Rin pleaded with the red-head, who was looking smug as she showed her friend the picture on her phone.

"It's cool, right? Of course, this one is only one of the many villas my family has." Maki handed her phone over to Rin and let her swipe through the pictures at her pleasure. "Maybe if we have some time over the break, I can get permission for us to go there."

"Really?! Then I want to go to this one, in the mountains!" Rin grinned as she pointed at the picture of the villa. "And Kayo-chin'll come too!"

"Hey, Rin-chan! Don't decide things for me without asking!" Hanayo grumbled. Maki shrugged and took her phone back.

"Then I'll just go with Rin. It should be fine, since you don't want to go, right?" She smirked, idly twirling a lock of her hair.

"I didn't say that!" Honoka tuned their conversation out from that point on, as the first years weren't even discussing their plans for the current trip. She turned her attention to the other second years in the group, wondering what they thought of the beach filming.

"I've already made a training schedule since the producer told me to." Umi said, patting her bag. "Everything's planned out."

"As expected of Umi-chan!" Kotori clapped her hands together in a gesture of applause. Honoka couldn't even follow with the idea of filming of a beach but they also wanted her to follow a training schedule while she was there? She had enough of training on a daily basis now and occasionally wished she could go back to the time when she agreed to be a character in the documentary and slap herself. Then again, if she hadn't chosen to audition on a whim, her life wouldn't be as interesting as it was now.

"Oh, she's here, she's here! Nico-senpai!" Rin waved as the third year walked slowly to their group.

"My siblings want souvenirs from my trip and wouldn't let me leave until I agreed." Nico said with a sigh.

"Then just get them some. We have plenty of time to do what we want until the production crew shows up tomorrow." Nozomi smiled and patted Nico on the back. "But before that, I think Eri-chi has something she wanted to say."

"That obvious, huh?" Eri coughed awkwardly and stepped into the center of their small group. "The script for this week's episode is focused on erasing the borders that separate us at school. Therefore, it would be good practice if we were to start addressing each other more casually today and tomorrow so that it will seem more natural."

"More casually...huh?" Maki turned to Nozomi. "Hm...Nozomi...onee-chan?"

"Ara, ara. I would be pleased to have such a cute little sister." Eri sighed, though she was still smiling at their interaction.

"That's a bit too much, Maki."

"Just 'Nozomi' then?" Nozomi pouted slightly at Eri's chastising, though she knew that having a sisterly relationship pronounced in their show would not do any good for the viewers.

"Yeah, that'll do. Everyone keep that in mind while we spend the next few days together." After she received assent from the rest of the group, Eri checked her watch for the time and froze. "Uh...we're going to be late if we don't run for it right now!"

* * *

"Um...even if we missed this train, there are others heading that way, just a little later." Kotori mentioned as she looked at the rest of her friends draped haphazardly on their seats, tired out from the sprint to the train. "...everyone knew that...right?"

"Let's not talk about it…" Eri said, righting herself in her seat by the window. Kotori nodded and sank into the seat next to Umi. Honoka leaned back in her seat, glancing around now that her heart rate was returning to normal. It occurred to her that she hadn't gone on a train to head outside the city in a long time, let alone with other girls her age and she was now curious as to what the outside looked like from inside a train. Except she couldn't see, as she had just flopped down in the closest seat when she was tired, and was now the furthest away from the window on their side.

As she strained to get a look outside the window, she inadvertently got Eri's attention instead. Eri looked at Honoka and the window a couple times before making the connection, at which point she decided to help her. "You're welcome to come and sit on my lap if you want, Honoka."

All the attention was on her again, and Honoka turned away, her arms crossed. "No way. I'm fine where I am."

* * *

"Okay, we've arrived at our destination. What should we do first?" Eri was the one who asked the question, but everyone looked at Honoka for an answer. She personally wanted to just stay in the villa for the rest of the day but somehow felt that no one else besides her wanted to stay inside the whole day.

"Let's put everything down inside the house first and explore the city, I guess?" Honoka suggested. "We'll be spending all of tomorrow at the beach after all." She just wanted to spend as little time close to the beach as she possibly could while she still had the chance to.

"That sounds like a good plan." Maki commented. "I'll show you around since I've been here before."

"Right. Let's meet up outside the villa in ten minutes. We'll walk around the town then. Sounds good to everyone?" Honoka looked at Eri, who was confidently directing the schedule for the day. If Eri was the leader, wouldn't they get a lot more done than the half-hearted way that she was urging them? She couldn't even keep up with them, sometimes, on the intensity of interest they had on becoming proper school idols. Even though it was her idea to start pushing for that goal. "Come on, Honoka. Don't you want to put your stuff down?" It was just the two of them; the rest of the group had gone inside for the time being.

"Yeah, I guess I should." Honoka hefted her bag once more and trudged into the building, Eri following close behind.

* * *

Honoka peered over Nico's shoulder as the third year scrolled through the pictures she had taken throughout their first day at the beach. "Jeez...why did I have to be the photographer?"

"Because everyone else forgot to bring a proper camera." Maki called out from the second floor. "Hanayo, catch!" She tossed a pillow down to where the other first year was waiting on the spread out futons. "Rin too!"

"Eh?" Rin was closer to the kitchen than the futons, and had to dive to catch the pillow that was on a direct trajectory to the floor. "I wasn't even close to the futons, Maki-chan!" She complained, tossing the pillow uncermoniously onto one of the blankets.

"You caught it though. Here!" Maki dropped another one.

"First years." Nico said, as if that explained all of the commotion going on regarding the transport of bed materials from the second floor to the first. "Here, if you want to continue looking. I'm going to get some tea." She handed the camera to Honoka and stood up, heading for the kitchen. Honoka followed her with her gaze as a misaimed pillow hit Nico in the back of her head.

"Sorry, Nico-chan! Can you toss that onto the futons?" Maki shouted, throwing another pillow down to Hanayo.

"Can you walk down with the pillows next time? It's only a few seconds longer than throwing it around!" Nico retorted, picking up the pillow and tossing it to Rin.

"Yeah, but this is easier!" Honoka turned her attention to the camera, flipping through the images. Maybe they shouldn't have let Nico be the photographer after all, even if she was the only one who brought a proper camera. There was a disproportionate amount of photos of one particular member compared to the others, she realized with a dry laugh. She turned the camera off and put it safely on the side table.

"Maki-chan, don't you think this is enough pillows?" Rin asked. There was a large mound of pillows in the center of the futons now. "We only need nine of them…"

"Three! Two! One! Juump!" Rin shrieked as Maki plummeted from the second floor into the stack of pillows. The red-head rolled to the side, laughing at Rin's face. "Rin should try it too!"

"No way! You could get hurt from something like that!" Rin protested. Maki shrugged, got up, and started building up the mound of pillows again. "Don't tell me you're jumping again?!"

"No, but she is." Maki placed the last pillow back onto the mound. "Okay. Hanayo!"

"Let's go!" Hanayo landed on the pillows and giggled as she got up.

"Can't we even trust you to get the futons laid out?" Eri chided, though, like the other members, she had a small smile on her face.

"But we did get the futons laid out!" Hanayo stated.

"It was just the pillows that we played around with!" Maki continued. "I'll put them back, so no worries, right?"

"We only need nine pillows, Maki-chan." Nozomi said gently.

"Okaaaay…" She looked at Hanayo, and they both nodded.

"You're going to carry them, not throw them." Nico said, finally with a cup of tea in her hands.

"Ah, we were busted." Hanayo said. She picked up a few pillows. "No choice then. Come on, Maki-chan." With a sigh of disappointment, the more stubborn first year followed suit and picked up some of the stacked pillows. The two started up the stairs to put the pillows away, slightly but not really regretting stacking so many pillows to jump down on.

* * *

Honoka sat up in her futon, unable to fall asleep. But she didn't want to disturb her friends' slumber, so she crawled slowly away from them until she could stand up without alerting any of them. "The beach...wouldn't have any people there right now." She paused. It was the Nishikino's beachside villa, so the beach right in front of the home was private property. There wouldn't be people there regardless of the time. "Guess I'll go."

It was quiet, down by the ocean, with only the soft sounds of the waves hitting shore. There were more stars than she had seen at night in Tokyo, and the moon shone brightly above the water. Such a strange place, to be the inspiration for so many paintings, songs, and shows.

"Did you know there are more grains of sand on this beach than stars that you can see in the sky?" Honoka turned around, startled.

"Eri-senpai." The third year 'tsked' and shook her finger at her.

"Try again, Honoka." Honoka had almost forgotten the 'no senpai' rule that was the focus of their trip.

"What are you doing out here so late?" She purposely avoided use of the older student's name and she knew that Eri knew she had opted out of addressing her in a much more casual manner.

"I could be asking you the same thing. Maybe I'm here to look at the stars. Or maybe I'm here to take a nighttime dip in the ocean." Eri grinned sheepishly.

"You shouldn't go for a swim at night. It's too cold. You could get sick." Honoka retorted.

"It was a joke. So...what's wrong?"

"Nothing much. Just thinking like 'is this what it's like to have a sleepover' or something. I've never done anything like it before." Honoka admitted reluctantly.

"Me neither." She looked at Eri in surprise. "I didn't like being popular, so I never tried to make friends or get close enough to anyone to do things like traveling together. But...it's kinda fun, isn't it?"

"Heck no. Everyone's loud and crazy and did you see what Maki-chan and Hanayo-chan did earlier?" Seriously...there's no way any of it could be fun."

"And yet here you are. At the beach, with a bunch of friends, and smiling like an idiot." Honoka flushed red as she touched her own face. Eri looked up at the dark sky. "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?"

"I'm not an idiot!" She hit Eri with her clenched fists, determined to knock that teasing smile off her senior's face. The last statement she made really had no context with the rest of their conversation and she couldn't see what the moon's beauty had to do with her supposed idiocy.

"Let's go back inside before we catch a cold. We still have filming to do, and they don't want to see sleep-deprived idols running around." Eri was headed back to the villa, and it was clear that she wanted Honoka to follow. She took one last look at the moon, still not understanding the meaning behind Eri's remark on the subject, and trotted after her. There really was no meaning to being sleep-deprived and slowing down the production of their show.

* * *

The next morning passed in a blur as the film crew showed up before any of them actually managed to get further than the kitchen in terms of waking up. They were briefed on the plans for the day over breakfast, with the producer stressing heavily on how she wanted to capture them being as natural as possible.

"Ah. I forgot my swimsuit." Honoka said as she dug through her bag of clothes. Or rather, she had simply neglected to bring it in so that she wouldn't have to be filmed in such skimpy clothing.

"Don't worry! We have an extra one in your size!" Kotori announced.

"Eh?! What the- How the heck did you get my sizes?!"

"Well...I took a look at the measurements they did to make the stage clothes and your sizes are pretty much the same as Maki-chan's so yeah!" Honoka backed up.

"Did you prepare extras for everyone too?" She asked.

"No. We got a text from Yukiho warning us that you don't have a swimsuit and to prepare one for you. So we did." Maki calmly replied. Honoka made a note to herself to smack Yukiho for putting her in such a situation. "You can't have a beach-themed episode without all the members in swimsuits, right?"

"Actually I was...planning on skipping out?" She made a dash for it as the rest of Muse paused to think about her statement.

"Wait, the main character can't skip out on an episode!"

* * *

"So this is the schedule I made as prop for this episode." Umi said, showing off the work she had put in for the filming. The other members, except for Kotori, who had already seen the schedule, and Honoka, who was sulking in the corner, gathered around to look at it.

"Swimming...10 km, followed by running...10 km?!" was the collective shocked response.

"No way, no way, no way! That's impossible!" Maki complained, voicing the thoughts of practically every other member who was looking at the schedule.

"That's what the script said. A nearly impossible training regime for Muse."

"O-Oi, Honoka! Say something!" Nico urged, finally grabbing their leader's attention away from sulking about being forced to wear a swimsuit.

"Rin-chan!" The orange-haired teen saluted smartly and took Umi by her arm.

"Umi-chan, look over there!" As Umi looked for the nonexistent thing Rin was pointing at, Honoka and the other members made a run for the beach.

She was huddled under the shade of an umbrella a few minutes later, taking a break from being on-screen. Even with the order to be 'natural' as they filmed this episode, she still couldn't get over the idea of being filmed in such a revealing outfit long enough to go along with the rest of the group.

"Honoka-chan! Let's play!" The beach volleyball rolled to a stop near the umbrella, and Honoka picked it up. Kotori waved at her, which made it all the more difficult to refuse.

"Okay! I'm coming!" She was still self-conscious about her appearance, but she would blend in more if she was with the larger group. Hopefully.

* * *

They still had one more day of play after the filming was done. Everything for the villa part of the episode had been filmed and the crews were headed back to the city to do the editing. Muse was left alone as they were still on a holiday from school and saw no need to return so soon. With the cameras gone, Honoka felt as if she could go on the beach, in a swimsuit, without getting embarrassed. Or she did, until A-Rise showed up at the villa.

"Ah, I invited them. The filming's over, so it should be fine, right?" Maki didn't think she had done anything wrong by inviting the three to join them on their last day at the beach, and couldn't understand why Honoka suddenly started hitting her head against the outer wall.

* * *

**If you understood what Eri meant by her moon statement, you're awesome and deserve a internet cookie! :D**


	11. The Greatest Live Performance

**Eri's comment on the moon was a confession of her love, though the other interpretations were appreciated. :D And yes, Honoka didn't get it at all. She still doesn't.**

**Ah...Love Live is ending...and I still have yet to go to a single live. Well, even if Muse disbands, they'll continue to stay together in my heart and mind and stories. ^-^' But I'm getting sidetracked. Without further rambling, this is episode 10 of the first season.**

**Disclaimer: don't own Love Live.**

* * *

"Onee-chan, you're going out in this weather?!" Yukiho called after her sister as Honoka attempted to put her jacket on, pull her boots on, and walk to the door all at the same time. "It's raining heavily out there! A NEET like you'll get sick!"

"I'm not a NEET!" Honoka retorted, settling for zipping her jacket up first before stepping into her boots. "I'm a school idol. Plus, I'm really behind the rest of my group so I have to practice on my own in preparation."

"I don't get it. Where did my lazy and useless sister go? It was so much easier to look good in comparison back then." Yukiho sighed, turning to go back to her bedroom.

"So it was your fault mom and dad kept nagging at me to do something with my life!" Honoka complained, though she personally didn't mind Yukiho's comments at the moment. If she hadn't been constantly nagged at, she didn't think she would have even considered joining the school's filming project. And she wouldn't have met any of her current friends, which she now considered worse than losing all the free time she had for playing before. Not that she'd tell any of them that. "I'm off!"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't catch a cold now." Despite her sister's unenthusiastic response, Honoka grinned and headed out into the rain. She looked up at the sky with the same smile on her face, enjoying the feeling of having water roll down her cheeks.

"Okay! I'm gonna give it my all for this live!" She shouted, then took off down the sidewalk. She needed to increase her endurance to keep up with the dance. It was going to be the last one they would ever need to practice for after all.

* * *

~A Few Days Earlier~

The entire cast had just been handed the scripts for the last few episodes, a strange event as they had never been prepared ahead of time for the roles they needed to play. The earliest was receiving the next script the day they finished filming the episode, and they had never gotten scripts for two or three episodes into the future.

"But...ending it because Kotori needs to go to Italy to take an opportunity as a fashion designer seems like a bit of a lame ending. No offense to you, Kotori." Maki added the last part in a hurry.

"No, I agree with Maki-chan. It's not interesting. And we don't even win Love Live." Kotori looked a bit down at that part. "I mean, the Love Live we were aiming for in this show isn't the real deal, but still…"

"We don't even manage to compete our place as the 19th most popular idol group. The script says we're going to end it because of Kotori and because the third years are going to graduate. 'Everyone is saddened and refuse to perform afterwards, ending Muse as a school idol group.' Who would want an ending like that?" Eri complained, flipping through the pages of her script. "And then the next two episodes are sending Kotori off and then moving on with our own lives."

"It does seem a bit rushed to be a proper ending." Umi said as her input on the subject. "But...there's not much we can do. This can't go on forever."

"We're not real idols after all. Just a bunch of students that happened to be at the right place at the right time to be brought into this project." Rin sighed, flattening herself onto the table in front of her. "Still…"

"I don't want it to end." Hanayo finished for Rin. "That's what you were thinking, right?" The two first year girls smiled at each other; they had become better friends through the project.

"I do." All of them looked at Nico, though it wasn't as if they were surprised by it. She always put her siblings first, even when the project took her away from them. "I can't keep leaving them at home by themselves."

"That's true…" Eri mumbled. "I haven't spoken to Arisa that much since starting this. Since everyone is needed on set even when we aren't in the scene."

"So it's going to be the end of Muse...after this." Nozomi said, and each of the girls turned their gazes to her instead.

"Why don't we just make our last performance the greatest we've ever done?" Honoka suggested, speaking for the first time. She flinched as all the attention was turned towards her, but continued. "I mean, the episode title is 'The Greatest Live Performance', after all…" She trailed off as some of the cast shook their heads sadly.

"We don't have to keep trying anymore. After No-brand Girls, it's straight acting and then it's over." Nico said harshly. She had been the one most opposed to practicing together from the beginning and Honoka couldn't blame her for it. Honoka hadn't even wanted to continue after she realized the amount of cheer that would be required for her to play her part. And yet…

"I think Honoka is right." She glanced up, surprised that someone would verbally support her. Eri looked at each of the members in turn. "We put all our efforts into our last song, and any complaints can be made to the producers instead of us for doing a bad job." The blonde looked at Honoka with such intensity that the leader of their group had to look away, slightly red-faced. "We've worked too hard to be burdened with the responsibility of a bad ending."

"Well...if both Honoka and Eri think so then…" Maki shrugged. "It wouldn't be that much trouble to do good on No-brand Girls. We've been practicing for so long after all." Slowly the others followed her lead, voicing small agreements to go along with making No-brand Girls their greatest performance yet.

* * *

Honoka kept their promise in mind as she jogged down the wet sidewalk with no destination in mind. She just needed to run and build up stamina for the dance. She could already sing and dance with a smile on her face, but she lacked the amount of energy to maintain it for the whole song as No-brand Girls kept them in constant movement. And she didn't want Umi to make an entire training schedule just for her, so she decided she would do her best by running every day until the day of the performance.

~The Day of the Live~

Honoka sat up in her bed sluggishly. Her brain was numb, and she barely remembered needing to turn off the alarm clock before heading to the bathroom to wash up. Moving around hurt too, even though she was sure she hadn't strained herself while training for the live. She looked at the mirror, too tired to be startled by her disheveled appearance. "Ah...is this...a fever?"

She had Yukiho test her temperature, feeling too out of it to trust her senses at the moment. Her sister read the numbers and sighed. "It's definitely a fever. You'd better rest for today." There was no point in arguing when she felt so tired so Honoka took her medicine and allowed Yukiho to lead her back up to the bedroom. But as soon as her sister left the house-she saw her through the bedroom window-she got up and put on her uniform. It was going to be the greatest performance, and she refused to let her fever hold the rest of her group back from it.

"A NEET like me can't catch a cold anyway. If I do it right...they won't notice." She slipped out the door; her parents were busy with the store and wouldn't check on her until later. She stumbled a bit, then regained her balance and walked quickly in the direction of her school. The medicine would hopefully clear the effects of the fever long enough to let her perform.

As the production crew readied the stage, Honoka kept herself busy by talking with Kotori and Umi. She could feel the gaze of another person on her but she refused to let it bother her today. She couldn't afford to, as every minute that passed as a minute closer to the time when her body would shut down on her. Any unneeded action would hasten the time, so Honoka focused on the conversation she was having and ignored the stare.

When they finally ascended the stage, a large group of Otonokizaka students had gathered to watch their last live. Just a few more minutes of strenuous activity and she could give her body the rest it wanted. The medicine was wearing off; she had taken it in the morning and it was now afternoon. She hadn't been able to get any rest, as doing so would tip off that there was something wrong to the rest of her friends. She pushed the fatigue threatening to knock her out away. She wouldn't let the fever take their live from her.

The dance came easily to her, after the many hours of practice she put into it. But it was now raining, and the cold drops did nothing to cool her heated body. As she held hands with the two next to her to bow, she became grateful that they were wearing gloves and couldn't feel her extra heat directly. Even so, she couldn't stop the wave of blackness that came from nowhere. She was only vaguely aware of the cries of shock that came following the initial darkness. It swallowed her up completely and she lost all connection with her awareness, floating freely in the fevered dream.

* * *

**Next time: Friends! (I forgot to do this last chapter.)  
**


	12. Friends

**How would Honoka's friends react to her collapse? Will the show continue as planned, or are the producers going to change their plans and make it more interesting? And...what does the inside of Honoka's bedroom look like?**

**Find out this chapter! :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Love Live.**

* * *

Honoka's room was filled with noise for the first time in, ever, for someone like her. Muse had taken it upon themselves to come and visit her, even Nico, who she was still kind of iffy about. Umi scolded her, appearing more close to her on-screen persona than ever, and only let off when Kotori caught her attention with something else.

"Here, I cut some apples for you." Nozomi said, announcing her return from the kitchen downstairs. She put it on the nightstand next to Honoka's bed, so that she could get it herself.

"Thanks. Did you ask my mom for permission before using the kitchen?" Honoka asked as she picked up a slice. There was a moment of silence, only broken by the conversation of the other girls and her own action of munching on the slice. It was sweet, and crunchy.

"...Let's pretend I did." Nozomi looked away, a sly smile on her face. Honoka decided it wasn't worth the effort to deal with the third year at the moment, especially with the apples calling towards her. She helped herself to another slice.

"Hey, Honoka, who's this?" Eri asked. The blonde had been looking around the bedroom, just as the first years had when they first arrived. She was pointing to a poster of a person, which stood out among the anime posters Honoka had plastered all over her room.

"That's the singer for the opening theme song in A Certain Scientific Railgun. She's my favorite- I mean, I just got it because it was on sale while getting a figure for that anime." Honoka shut up after that statement, her face as red as the skin on the apples she was eating.

"Eh~? So Honoka likes singing?" Eri teased, perfectly aware that the blush was not a result of the second year's current fever. "Makes sense then, why you joined the project."

"T-That's not it! I told you I got it on sale!" Honoka protested, throwing her blanket aside in her hurry to get up and make her point ot the teasing third year.

"You can't, Honoka-chan!" Kotori caught her before she could leave the bed and pushed her back down. "You have to rest and get better!" She pouted, upset, but gave in to her friend's demand. "And Eri-chan, don't tease her like that!"

"Okay, okay. I won't. For now." Eri blocked the pillow that Honoka threw at her with her hand, still smiling triumphantly. Honoka now at the apples with a bit of irritation at being unable to keep up with the blonde's pace.

"So anyway...you guys aren't mad?" Honoka finally asked the question that had been pressing on her mind since she woke up in her bed. She had no memory of how she got there, only remembering that she had fainted immediately after their live performance.

"Hm? About what?" Maki looked up from the manga she had been reading. The first years had found her manga collection and were going through it volume by volume, though it would be a while before they finished every book she had. The other girls also looked at her with varying degrees of confusion.

"You know...about the live...and my…" She trailed off as Eri walked up to her bedside with a gentle smile. The blonde held a rolled up scroll in her hand, which she no doubt found while examining Honoka's desk. "Um…"

"Of course we're mad!" Eri said as she smacked Honoka over the head with the scroll she was holding. "Who wouldn't be?!"

"That's a limited-ouch-edition item you're-ow-using-owowow!"

"Who in their right minds would be okay with you overexerting yourself until you had a fever and then decided that you would be okay enough to perform a song because you wanted to make it the greatest performance ever?!" Eri shouted, still hitting Honoka with the scroll she had found.

"But I had to!" Honoka protested, protecting her head with her arms as she glared defiantly at the blonde.

"Your health is worth more than that damned show!" A stunned silence fell after Eri's final outburst. None of them had ever heard her curse before, and Honoka was even more startled when Eri wiped at her face with the back of her arm.

"Eri-chi is right." Nozomi said, her voice breaking through the silence. "Everything we worked for would have been thrown down the drain if we lost our precious leader." So it really was her fault then. She had ruined the live, ruined the show, and made her friends worry about her when she had tried so hard to avoid doing any of those things.

"...Sorry…" She mumbled, the apologetic word slipping out. "I'm sorry…" Her vision blurred from the tears that were threatening to show themselves.

"You should be! Worrying us all like that. You...big idiot!" Eri shouted. Her sky blue eyes brimmed with tears, just as Honoka's were. "Just don't do it again, idiot!"

"I'm not an idiot!" Honoka retorted out of reflex, though she felt much better about it. It reminded her about the night she and Eri looked at the stars, even though that was only for a short time and her presence was completely unwanted at the moment.

"Only an idiot would keep training in conditions like that!"

"Only an idiot would cry because of something like that!"

"Okay, we get it. You're both idiots." Nico sighed as both of them snapped to look at her. "Eri, go wash up in the bathroom. You look just as sick as Honoka does. Nozomi, please go get a towel so we can wipe up the bed-bound idiot." Eri was escorted, protesting, by Nozomi as the two headed to complete the tasks assigned to them. Honoka scowled, rubbing at her face to dry the tears.

"No more drama? Can I go back to reading this in peace now?" Hanayo asked, somewhat impudently, as the other two readers nodded vigorously. As much as they didn't want their friends to fight, they were as equally entranced by the books.

"Don't damage them though. They're the only copies I have of that series." Honoka warned them, doing her best to be intimidating while Nozomi wiped her face for her. She didn't think her message got across as the three first years saluted before returning their attention to the manga in their hands.

"Is everything you have in this room limited edition, anime, or the only copy you have of it?" Eri asked, having come back from the bathroom. She still carried the scroll she had been using to hit Honoka with earlier.

"Not everything. The poster you're holding is a very rare, limited edition, anime poster. And I only have one of it." Honoka responded. "Now if you could put it back where you found it…?"

"This thing?" Eri held it up, checking for clarification. "Hm...if it's worth that much to you, then I'd might as well keep it."

"Eh? EH?!"

"You can have it back once you get better. Now, don't you think it's time we left and let Honoka rest by herself?" The third years and second years voiced their agreement and left the bedroom. A few seconds later, Umi returned and dragged the first years away as well, ignoring their protests at being unable to finish reading the volume they were on. Honoka stared, dumbfounded, at the door, not fully comprehending what just occurred.

* * *

~A Few Days Later~

"I'm all better so give it back." Honoka demanded, having approached Eri as soon as she arrived at school that day.

"Too bad. I don't carry posters around during the school day. You're going to have to wait until later."

"What?!" She complained. That particular poster was the one she had been saving up for and had looked forward to hanging it on her wall once she obtained it. And it had been almost a week since she purchased it, and it was still not where she had planned it to be. "My poster…"

"Anyway, Honoka. We finally got the this week's script so we're not to attend class. Everyone's meeting at the club room." Honoka looked at her in surprise.

"Didn't we get the scripts last week?" She still had them in her bag, as she had been preparing for it despite being stuck in bed.

"Yeah, but with your collapse caught on camera and broadcasted, the script-writers pulled out something new." Eri paused, looking tense. "And...there's a bit of a situation with the filming now. I'll tell you once everyone gets to the club room." Honoka was a bit confused, but she followed the older girl to the club room anyway. There was no point in going to class if the plan was to look at the new scripts in preparation for the week's episode.

She and Eri were the last two to show up, and the other members seemed to be tired out, even though it was only the beginning of the day. Honoka took her seat and opened the script passed to her by Umi. It wasn't that different, as Kotori would still be leaving for Italy, and there was still no planned ending live, but there was more drama on her part. For once, she and the Honoka she was supposed to portray was of the same mind, feeling bad for causing problems for their group. But she couldn't focus on it at the moment, with all the tension in the air. She felt like she had missed something major while she was stuck at home resting.

"Since everyone's finally here, especially the one that this is revolving around, we can finally discuss our plan of action on our situation." Nico said, starting the meeting for the first time since they started working together as a group.

"Did something happen while I was sick?" Honoka asked immediately, fearing the worst, which was that Muse would be disbanded just like she would have to do for the sake of the show. Umi nodded, and looked at Hanayo. Honoka hadn't noticed earlier, but the first year was scrolling through several websites at the same time on her laptop.

"The thing is, the producers aired the episode as it was, with your collapse and our reactions. That was fine for our fans, until one of the scriptwriters, after finishing the new script, threw a copy of the old one away. It was picked up and blown all over the internet." Honoka didn't see a problem with what Nico was telling her and hated to be the one who knew nothing about their situation despite being the main cause of it, as she was being told.

"So...what?" She asked, when the pause after Nico's statement stretched too long for her to get an answer without prompting one.

"The fans are furious. They think that you collapsed because you worked too hard at the producer's command." Eri supplied in Nico's stead. "Even now, our viewers are protesting at the company building. Some have even made the connection between it and the Nishikino family. They're protesting there as well, making commotion at the hospital and targeting the main household."

"Eh? Wait, huh? Why?" Honoka's brain reeled. It was too much information to take in all at once.

"The people are worried for you, and for all of us. Because they think you got sick and you were forced to act despite it." Hanayo said, reading off her screen. "It says so right here."

"But I did that on my own!" Honoka protested.

"They don't know that, Honoka!" Nico shouted, slamming her hands down on the table. "They don't know that we were sincerely doing our best, even to the point where we couldn't do anymore. All they know is that you forced yourself onstage when you shouldn't have and now the pressure is on everyone involved to resolve this before it gets too large!" Honoka shrank back from her outburst, not sure if Nico was trying to blame her or trying to negate the blame that was slowly starting to sink on her shoulders again.

"Even the students here are getting uneasy. They want to go on strike against Otonokizaka for the same reasons the fans are targeting the production company and the Nishikino family. That won't bode well for this school, and for the meaning we are trying to get across." Umi said.

"Then all we need to do is show them that I did that myself! Then they have no choice but to back off and let the show finish. Right?" Honoka didn't understand why none of the others were on the same page as her. It seemed like a good idea, to ease the tension among the fans by releasing a clip of her apologizing for her actions and stubbornness.

"That's another problem by itself." Nozomi admitted, and Honoka looked at her in confusion.

"I don't know...if I can continue being a part of this show." Maki's comment was barely louder than a whisper, yet it seemed to reach every member present. "Even if we calm the fans, I don't know if I can continue. Because I'm...an idol they want to protect, and a daughter my family doesn't want to participate in such...degrading activities anymore…"

* * *

**If you understand the reason behind Honoka's poster of a singer, you're awesome! More internet cookies!**

**Yes, there's complication in the behind the scenes as well. They did manage to film the episode based on the new script, but it was more rushed than intended.**

**Next episode, the finale: u's Music Start!**

**In regards to whether the second season will be written as well, that fully depends on how many people want it. It's just like the actual school idol project. Enough people have to want to see it for it to continue. :D**


	13. u's Music Start!

**u's Music Start!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Love Live.**

* * *

"Are you sure about this, Honoka?" Eri asked worriedly as she readied the camera. The entire project had been put on hiatus following the disasterous reception to the last episode. Apparently, having the episode continue as normal was aggravating to the fans who demanded compensation for Honoka's on-screen collapse. Honoka nodded, determined to go through with it even though she would be on camera alone.

"The whole thing is my fault. I have to set it right so that no one gets hurt. And so that Maki-chan can come back." The red-haired first year hadn't been seen at school without an escort, and none of the rest of Muse could approach her without being threatened. She had been put into the literal spot between a rock and a hard place, as she was both a member of Muse, who the fans wanted to continue seeing, and a Nishikino, who the fans blamed for the project.

"We're ready here." Hanayo announced. They were going to live stream Honoka's speech on the internet, hoping that enough fans were watching to spread the message, and they were doing it on their own. The film crew, like the rest of the production company, were on lock-down. The higher-ups of the company were arguing in court against the charges the fans had brought. A decision hadn't been made yet, but Muse needed to stop the false charges laid by their viewers and finish the project.

"Okay, Honoka. Ready when you are." Eri said, her finger hovering over the record button. Honoka took a deep breath, then released it. She needed to be honest with the fans, and explain why she had collapsed and how it wasn't the fault of the company. She double-checked one last time to make sure Hanayo was working the live stream chat along with Rin and Kotori.

"They're already online. The news is spreading that we're doing a live stream and they're commenting in the chat even though nothing has happened yet." Hanayo looked at Honoka, her gaze just as determined as Honoka felt. "I'll relay any questions to you."

"Thanks, Hanayo-chan. Okay, Eri-chan. Let's do this." The red dot flashed on their camera, letting her know that she was now live on the screens of strangers. She needed to calm them down and convince them to stop targeting the production company.

"My name is Kousaka Honoka, the leader of Muse, though I'm sure many of you already know that…" Honoka trailed off, nervousness suddenly rising in her chest as she suddenly became aware that she would have to be herself and not the 'Honoka' she had been portraying on-screen. Even if she had felt closer to her character's persona, she couldn't help but be afraid of talking about herself after being 'Honoka' all the time for the fans. She looked at Eri, who gave her a reassuring smile despite being just as worried as she was. It was a hard task they were attempting, to calm down the masses, and it could easily go wrong. "...and I know many of you are very angry at the production company after I collapsed during the shoot because it looks like they forced me to dance when I wasn't feeling well but that's not how it went at all."

"Keep going, Honoka-chan. They're complaining about the company, but the view numbers are increasing." Hanayo said, keeping her gaze on the screen of the laptop.

"I pushed myself onto the stage knowing that I had a fever, knowing that I would not be able to last the whole performance, because I wanted to be there. I wanted to dance on that stage with the rest of Muse. We'd worked so hard for it, I couldn't let them down at that moment!" Honoka shivered with the force of emotion that was within her. She hadn't felt this much passion for anything, except maybe when she was deeply ingrained in the plot of an anime and the main character died but her mind was now going off-track and she needed to stop herself and refocus on her task. She looked at the paper she had worked on with the other members of the group to say in calming down their viewers. "But that was my mistake. I was too reckless in trying so hard to perform that day. I know I could have, no, I should have asked them to postpone the day of the filming so that I would be in a better condition."

"Honoka-chan, they're starting to get rowdy in the chat! They keep repeating 'Save Muse' and 'Bring down the producers' and they're not responding well to the three of us trying to stop them." Hanayo reported, looking at Honoka. "What do we do now?" For the first time since they met, Hanayo looked truly frightened. Beside her, Kotori and Rin typed away, doing their best to ease the tension that was building online. Despite their actions, she could hear the almost nonstop chimes that alerted them to new messages showing up on their chat boards.

"Eh?" Honoka didn't know what to do. She was only a NEET after all, and no normal student had to deal with the situation she was trying to ease. "Ah...um…" The fear that came from being on camera, the fear that her actions were only exacerbating the problem, the fear that her friends were now feeling; it was all working against her. She was scared, far beyond what she had felt a few days ago, when she had gotten yelled at by Eri. Eri! Desperately, she looked at the third-year, too frightened to stay on camera by herself now. "Eri-chan...help me…" Eri was about to go to her side when Kotori stopped her. The second year whispered something into the blonde's ear and she nodded reluctantly.

"Keep it up, Honoka. You're doing great." Hearing that didn't help Honoka's mood, or her heightened fear of being on-camera. It wasn't the proper time for teasing, she wanted to shout, but she was scared that doing so would aggravate the fans even more. Maybe she'd give one more attempt at a calming statement. The computer team hadn't stopped trying yet, and Eri was probably encouraging her though Honoka was inclined to think otherwise.

"Everyone watching this...wants to protect Muse, right?" She directed the question at Hanayo, not at the camera. The first year nodded vigrously before returning to her work at the chat room. "Then...lashing out at the production company...and the Nishikino family...won't help anything." There was something else she could use to change their minds. "Muse is a group of nine. Protecting eight of its members and neglecting the ninth means you're not trying to protect it."

"Ah, Honoka-chan, you idiot! They were calming down because you looked scared but now your comment is provoking them again!" Rin complained as the amount of chimes increased again.

"That's their fault! Maki-chan's a member of Muse too, but complaining to the Nishikino family is only driving her further and further away!" Honoka retorted, ignoring Eri's sigh as she facepalmed next to the camera. "I'm at fault for recklessly putting my life in danger for the sake of a show, and you're-" She pointed directly at the camera. "-all at fault for getting angry at the company for something you don't fully understand! So if you want to get angry, direct it at me, the cause of it all!" Silence fell after her outburst, even the chimes that announced incoming chat messages. "That's all. Thank you and good-bye." Eri turned off the recording after her last comment, and Honoka heaved a sigh of relief.

"You idiot!" Eri flicked her forehead, causing Honoka to whimper slightly. "Those last few statements of yours were anything but calming!"

"I couldn't come up with anything else to say! You didn't help me!" Honoka protested. Sure, she hadn't been calm at the end of the recording, but there wasn't much she could have done given how frightened she had been just a few moments before she started feeling fed up with their fans.

"As reckless as that was, it worked." Hanayo said breathlessly as she sat back in her chair. "There's still a few who want to fight at court, but most of them are satisfied with Honoka-chan's performance. Some are even taking you up on your offer and yelling at you."

"We should be back on screen in a few days, once everything calms down." Rin said, stretching. Honoka smirked, pulling away from Eri's grip on her cheeks. Her face still stung from the pinches on both sides, but she was finally triumphant over Eri.

"Hold on. We still have to get Maki."

"Ah." So that was nagging at the back of her mind. Their job wouldn't be finished until they had gotten Maki back into Muse.

"Don't tell me you forgot." Honoka whistled the tune to "Susume → Tomorrow" as she faced away from the third year. "Ho-no-kaa?"

"Ouchie! I'm sowwy!" She couldn't really speak all that clearly with Eri stretching her cheeks again.

"Speak clearly!"

"Let go of me firwst!"

* * *

~A Few Days Later~

The nine girls stood in preparation for what would be their final improvisation to the series. None of the next couple minutes were planned by the company. It was completely their own contribution, to end the series on a good note following the conclusion of soothing their fan's anger. As for how they got Maki back on board with the project...Honoka had to admit that A-Rise's leader was persistent. Enough to convince the Nishikino family that their daughter needed to make her own decisions, the first of which was to return to Muse.

"Are you sure about this? We've never done this song before."

"Yeah, but you've watched it right?"

"Still...that doesn't mean we're going to get right on the first try."

"I believe we can do it. It's time for us to start dash!"

"...what?"

"You know. The song name. Start Dash. Nevermind, let's just do it."

* * *

**Yes! The singer on Honoka's poster in her bedroom is Nanjo Yoshino, Eri's voice actress. And it's her favorite singer, if you get what I mean. :3**

**Ending seems a bit rushed. Sorry.**

**Next chapter is going to be the epi- *static* What's...bzzzt-ing on...? *more static***

**"Hello! I look forward to meeting everyone next chapter!" Who's talking right now?!**

**"There's no way this can end yet! That's right! A Never-Ending Party! I can't wait to play with everyone!"**

**...well...the mysterious person has spoken (you all probably know who it is already though). Next chapter will be- "A Never-Ending Party!"**


	14. OVA

**This is the OVA episode, and there's a special guest in today's cast of characters. Although she does not make it all the way through the episode, let's give her a warm welcome.**

**"Yay! Let's have some fun in this place!"**

**Yup. She's very excited.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Love Live.**

* * *

With the filming over with, the group had returned to their normal lives. For Honoka, that meant catching up on all the anime and game events she missed during her time as an actress. She was in the middle of doing so when her phone vibrated with a new message. Sighing, she grudgingly paused the episode and picked up her phone. "Ah. It's from Eri-chan." Honoka tapped the message and quickly read it, hoping that it wasn't urgent enough to leave her anime. "Eh? Now?!" Cursing her luck, she left her laptop open on the paused video and scrambled to get changed out of her pajamas.

"Why now? We shouldn't have anything to do for at least a few weeks before the next season!" Honoka complained as she sprinted down the road to her school. It was the weekend, so there weren't any other students there. Sweat rolled down the sides of her face as she panted, having finally arrived at the front gate.

"Yo, Honoka-whoa, you're really out of it, huh?"

"And whose fault do you think it is?!" Honoka snapped, but she was too out of breath to do anything more than that. Eri smiled apologetically, though she still radiated an aura of mischief. "Jeez...telling me to go to the school because of an urgent request from the production company...nobody's even here!" The courtyard was completely empty except for the two of them. Honoka scowled, slowly recovering from her sprint to the school.

"Well...we're supposed to meet at Maki's house but I didn't think you knew where it was. Ah, but we're going to be filming here! Honest!" She sighed at her senior's hopelessness. So they were going to film something after all, even though the season was already over. She felt as if she would never understand the people who made their show, or the people who watched it and held influence over it. But there was no helping it; she had signed up for her part in the project months ago. Eri looked surprised as Honoka took her hand.

"What? Aren't you going to take me to Maki-chan's house?" Honoka asked. "This is just failsafe so you don't run too fast and leave me behind."

"I'd never leave you behind." Eri said with a smile. "At least, I don't intend to."

"Yet so many of the things you do are without intention, right?" She started walking, going slightly ahead of Eri so that the third year wouldn't see her face and call her an idiot again.

"That's not true!" Eri protested, picking up her pace to catch up with Honoka. But as soon as she felt the change in pace, Honoka sped up a little bit. "Hey, slow down!"

"No, you speed up. I thought you were leading me to our destination." Honoka turned around just a bit to glance at Eri. She stuck her tongue out and then faced forward again, walking faster as Eri tried to catch up.

"You asked for it." Honoka's moment of confusion was erased once she started being dragged, stumbling, behind Eri as the third-year began running. "Who's slow now?"

"It's still you!" With a grunt of effort, Honoka pushed herself into a faster pace than Eri, slowly edging past her on the sidewalk.

"Not bad for a NEET!" Eri commented before falling silent as she saved her breath for running.

"I'm not a NEET!" Honoka protested, her breaths coming in short gasps. She hadn't fully rested up from her earlier sprint and her muscles were now complaining from the exertion. Despite it, she pushed herself to beat Eri in terms of speed.

"So...what you're saying is...you both got too into beating each other in a race and forgot where you were supposed to go? Are you idiots?" Nico sighed as the two girls lay on the couches in the Nishikino's reception room, gasping for breath.

"It's...not my fault!" Honoka retorted, her chest heaving. "I didn't...even know where...this place is!"

"I...humbly beg...the accuser to...refrain from commenting until...the guilty party is fit...to respond…" Eri pleaded in between gulps of water.

"By the way…" Honoka said, sitting up as she slowly recovered her lost oxygen. "Why am I always last to find out about new scripts?"

"It was emailed to us at the same time though, Honoka-chan." Kotori answered, somewhat unhelpfully as Honoka hadn't been checking her email recently. She hadn't thought that the company would be trying to contact her through it, and was more interested in anime than trying to figure out her next part in the project.

"That aside, the episode's mostly focused on Maki, so it's not like we have a lot to say." Umi handed Honoka her print-out of the script for her to look over.

"But how are they planning to get a child version of Maki-chan for this?" Honoka asked, somewhat startled by the sudden change in tone from normal school life to something similar to fantasy.

"You can ask me all you want, but I have no idea how this happened either." Maki caught everyone's attention as she walked into the room, balancing a tray of tea cups and cookies. Behind her, Rin carried a teapot and a thermos filled with extra hot water. Hanayo followed behind the two others, carrying a small child.

"Why do I have to carry her?" The girl complained. Maki set her tray down on the coffee table in the center of the seats.

"Because you're the most suited for baby-sitting." Hanayo scowled and took a seat on an empty chair. The child in her grasp looked around, curious but unafraid of the strangers she was surrounded by.

"This is Ki. I don't know how she got here, but she's going to be a part of our extra episode." Maki said as she poured the tea for the other members. "That's the best explanation I can give for her right now."

"Ki-chan, huh? Strange name." Nico commented, taking a cookie from the plate.

"It's not strange! It's my half of the name." The girl said loudly, climbing down from Hanayo's lap to help herself to a cookie.

"And what's the other half?"

"Captured by a demon." Ki nibbled on the cookie. "In a weird shadow dimension."

"Children have such vivid imaginations." Nico leaned back against the wall, a cup of tea in her hands.

"It's not made-up!" The child protested. "But it's not like it's something any of you would understand anyway. You're different from the ones I know." She sighed. For the first time, Honoka realized that the child was speaking with a vocabulary much larger than she should have for a girl of her age. There was something off about her, but it was as Ki had said. She wasn't able to grasp what it was that felt different.

"Anyway, do you know your lines for the episode?" Rin asked, trying to get the conversation back on track to what it should have been.

"Yeah, I do. Kinda hard not to, when that actually happened to me." Ki shrugged. "But life happens."

Having the child on set was a bit unsettling for the normal cast, especially after the strangeness of the conversation they had with her. It was almost as if she had come from a different world, where Muse wasn't a fake idol group and everything they did was part of their actual life in comparison to the scripted Muse that existed in their reality. Honoka was on edge the entire shoot, unable to calm down for a reason that she couldn't exactly outline clearly.

"Honoka." She straightened herself, not wanting to be caught and accused of slacking even though she was no longer needed for the filming. Her part had been already filmed, and she was just waiting for the crew to dismiss her so she could go home. But she had even more reason to worry, as she was being addressed by the exact person she had just been deep in thought about.

"What is it, Ki-chan?" Honoka tried to keep her tone light, even though she wondered at how the child had been brought up to call her without any honorifics.

"I was just wondering about your relationships to the others. It's different from what I know, so I figured I'd ask the leader." This child was even more impudent than Hanayo, and that was saying a lot considering the first year's normal behavior.

"We're pretty good friends, I think..." Honoka said, not really sure what Ki wanted to hear from her. And the unsettled feeling in her chest increased with the proximity of the girl. Something about her was making Honoka frightened, and her rationality couldn't pinpoint the cause for the fear. Ki looked like a normal little girl, even if she looked exactly like Maki and spoke about strange things.

"Hm...this is a pretty weird dimension I've escaped to…"

"What do you mean? Where are you from?" Honoka asked, figuring she had earned the right to question the child after being questioned.

"Like I said earlier, none of you would understand. Because 'that' isn't reality here." Ki shrugged. "But If you want, I can explain a little bit."

"Please do." The child rocked on her heels for a moment before talking.

"The best way of simplifying it is that everything you know as being scripted episodes is real life for me. Even this...really weird episode of meeting Maki's younger self. The only real difference is that after this, I get captured by a demon. Muse is currently in the middle of trying to save me."

"A...demon?" She was more inclined to believe that it was all just a creation of Ki's imagination.

"You don't have to believe me, but do me a favor and believe in yourself. It'd really help the Honoka in my world if you could. Now, I'd better get back to the fight, and you need to wake up. Eri's calling."

"Wait!" Honoka shouted, then groaned in pain from hitting her face against the floor of the Nishikino's reception room.

"Honoka, I know you're tired from our race-"

"Enough to fall asleep on us." Nico interrrupted but Eri continued anyway.

"-but we have to get started on the filming so that the production crew can edit in the special effects." Honoka got to her feet, still testing her nose gingerly to see if it broke. She followed the rest of her friends from the room. She felt like there was something important she had forgotten in the process of introducing her face to the floor. It probably wasn't that important, if she had managed to forget about it after taking a hit to the face. But she was getting more fired up for the filming after her fall, or rather, for her life in general. It felt like electricity was running through her body, increasing her desire to succeed in her task, if only so she could go home and continue watching her anime.

Which she really needed when the producers announced that there would be a second season to their show. As much as she was starting to enjoy being an actress with her friends, she really didn't think any of them were up to going script-less for the second season, especially while still maintaining the personalities that they had displayed through the first season. And on top of that, their goal was to get into the real Love Live, taking place that following spring. Honoka sighed. There went her hope for a return to a normal life.

* * *

**"I would have stayed longer...but I can't keep sleeping when Honoka needs me! Oh well, at least I got to talk to this dimension's Honoka, even though it was only through a dream. Now I'd better get back to my Honoka's side and protect her! See you!"**

**And there she goes...makes you wonder how they got through the episode without a child Maki, huh?**

**The OVA made no sense to me so this was the best I could do with it.**

**And with that, Documentary comes to an end. Until the second season! (Comment a title, please. Or if not, it will be titled Documentary 2. Look at my great naming sense. :D )**


End file.
